Bokhari: Google Denies Political Bias to the Senate – Yes, Really

You have to admire Google’s sheer brazenness before the Senate.

Just a day after more leaked documents — as well as undercover footage of a top company executive — exposed Google’s determination to never let an election result like 2016 happen again, Google’s representatives told a Senate hearing that the company considers itself a “neutral public forum.”

The company has said similar things before — one of its favorite lines is that it doesn’t let political bias affect its products.

Note that Google never claims that its company culture isn’t politically biased. How could it, when its executives all expressed uniform dismay at the results of the 2016 election? Or when it fires talented software engineers for expressing mainstream political opinions about gender, while distributing U.C Berkeley-esque guidelines to its managers warning them about the dangers of “white dominant culture”? Or its lax attitude to support for the violent ‘Antifa’ movement within its workforce?

The bias is widespread. That’s clear, and even Google isn’t mad enough to deny it.

Their claim that the political bias doesn’t affect their products, though? Do they think we’re idiots?

Yes, they do think we’re idiots — and bigots, sexists, racists, etc etc. And they’re determined to make sure that stupid, bigoted voters are manipulated to make fewer stupid, bigoted decisions.

That’s why the company created its YouTube blacklist, first exposed by Breitbart News earlier this year. By adding “controversial” terms (like “abortion” and “abortions”) to the list, they rearrange search results so that content from the likes of CNN, BuzzFeed and Vice rises to the top, where more people will see it. They hope that by doing so, users won’t be as likely to encounter dangerous, conservative opinions.

As Project Veritas recently revealed, this search-result meddling went as far as election interference. Before the Irish referendum to decriminalize abortion last year, the tech giant made over 120 additions of search terms to the blacklist. Almost all the terms, like “repeal the 8th”, were related to the referendum.

Google’s own researchers have admitted, in a document called “The Good Censor”, that it has “shifted towards censorship” since 2015-16. What happened in those years that caused such a dramatic change in policy? Could it have been the rise of populism, which Google executive Kent Walker says he wants to relegate to a “blip” in history?

There have been so many leaks from Google revealing its manipulation of its own products to undermine conservatives that it’s difficult to keep track. From labeling Breitbart News a “fringe domain” to kicking the Gateway Pundit and Conservative Tribune out of news results, the company’s bias against conservatives and conservative media is clear.

For Republican senators, the time for asking questions is over. Google isn’t planning on giving you any straight answers, and one of their top employees is on record stating they’ll ignore your demands anyway. Sen. Josh Hawley has the right idea — don’t come up with questions, come up with legislation.

Are you a source at YouTube or any other corporation who wants to confidentially blow the whistle on wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari securely at allumbokhari@protonmail.com.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.