More Claims Emerge Saying Google Unfairly Targets Conservatives On The Web It’s not a stretch to see that Google leans more than just a little to the left. And it’s not a stretch to think that this is not the first time you’ve heard that. Currently they are being sued by a former employee who alleges he was discriminated against for being a white male, but they have also been accused of discriminating against women.
Now the Daily Caller points out how they are discriminating against conservative voices on the web:
Google, the most powerful search engine in the world, is now displaying fact checks for conservative publications in its results.
No prominent liberal site receives the same treatment.
And not only is Google’s fact-checking highly partisan — perhaps reflecting the sentiments of its leaders — it is also blatantly wrong, asserting sites made “claims” they demonstrably never made.
When searching for a media outlet that leans right, like The Daily Caller (TheDC), Google gives users details on the sidebar, including what topics the site typically writes about, as well as a section titled “Reviewed Claims.”
Vox, and other left-wing outlets and blogs like Gizmodo, are not given the same fact-check treatment. When searching their names, a “Topics they write about” section appears, but there are no “Reviewed Claims.” In fact, a review of mainstream outlets, as well as other outlets associated with liberal and conservative audiences, shows that only conservative sites feature the highly misleading, subjective analysis. Several conservative-leaning outlets like TheDC are “vetted,” while equally partisan sites like Vox, ThinkProgress, Slate, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Salon, Vice and Mother Jones are spared.
Search Engine Watch suggests some alternatives to Google: Bing
Microsoft’s search engine is the second most popular search engine in the world, with 15.8% of the search market. DuckDuckGo
The key feature of DuckDuckGo is that it doesn’t retain its users’ data, so it won’t track you or manipulate results based on your behaviour. So if you’re particularly spooked by Google’s all-seeing, all-knowing eye, this might be the one for you. Quora
As Google gets better and better at answering more complicated questions, it will never be able to match the personal touch available with Quora. Dogpile
Dogpile may look like a search engine you cobbled together with clip-art, but that’s rather the point as it pulls in and ‘curates’ results from various different engines including Google, Yandex and Yahoo, but removes all the ads. Vimeo
Of course if you’re going to give up Google, then you’ll also have to give up YouTube, which can be a terrifying prospect. But there is an alternative. And a pretty good one at that… Vimeo. The professional’s choice of video-sharing site, which has lots of HD video and no ads.
And there are more like Yandex, Boardreader, WolframAlpha, StartPage, Ask.com and more. It will take a strong voice from capitalist America to knock Google off its pedestal. For now, Google reigns.
By Lisa Payne-Naeger
Posted on January 11, 2018
