Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Why Google Is the Perfect Target for Trump -- Wired

Tangentially, see Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture (NYT)
"Google doesn’t “rig” its algorithm against conservatives, or against Trump, at least not in the way that he means here. Whether the stories and news it surfaces are “bad” depends on what happened in the world—like, say, close associates pleading guilty to or being convicted of federal crimes—right before you search. A very simple case in point: If you type “Trump” or “Trump news” right now into Google News, the top results all center around this very tirade. The fourth result in a recent search in an incognito window, which doesn't factor in search history, came from the reliably conservative Fox News.

Is Google News rigged, though? Almost certainly not, but you’d be hard-pressed to prove it. That’s because Google search, like Facebook’s News Feed and other platforms, derives its power from an algorithm for which no one outside of the company has any specific insight."
  Why Google Is the Perfect Target for Trump -- Wired

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