In recent weeks, conservatives have been ramping up their criticism of tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter for allegedly showing political bias against the Trump administration. This week, accusations heated up after Breitbart leaked a video and emails of Google executives reacting to the 2016 presidential election.
ABC News reports that Breitbart has published two leaks this week.
On Monday, Breitbart and Fox News reported on a leaked email from Eliana Murillo, Google’s multicultural marketing chief. The email was sent out shortly after the 2016 presidential election, and referenced Google’s efforts to boost Latino turnout. Google partnered with Voto Latino to pay for rides to the polls, and Murillo said in her email that “We pushed tp [sic] get out the Latino vote with our features, our partners, and our voices. We kept our Google efforts non-partisan and followed our company’s protocols for the elections strategy.”
Google has denied bias in a statement responding to the leaked email.
“The employee’s email is an expression of her personal political views about the outcome of the 2016 election and those views do not reflect any official stance by the company. We have nearly 90,000 employees comprising a broad array of political affiliations. The email itself explicitly notes that she is speaking personally, and that Google’s efforts were non-partisan.”
Breitbart’s leaked video of immigrant employees at Google reacting politely but nervously to Trump’s insanely xenophobic and bloodthirsty campaign is, in their eyes, proof of bias. That is so ridiculous. https://t.co/VsciMPF9G4
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) September 13, 2018
On Wednesday, Breitbart published a leaked video of an employee meeting shortly after the 2016 presidential election, in which Google executives appear upset by the Trump campaign victory. The executives include Google co-founder and Alphabet President Sergey Brin, and Google Senior Vice President of Global Affairs Kent Walker.
Google reiterated its response to the previous leak, by stating that there is no company political bias.
“At a regularly scheduled all hands meeting, some Google employees and executives expressed their own personal views in the aftermath of a long and divisive election season. Nothing was said at that meeting, or any other meeting, to suggest that any political bias ever influences the way we build or operate our products.”
Many analysts and media experts are pushing back against the conservative narrative, saying there is no evidence of bias on behalf of the companies or their methodologies. Gizmodo reports that nowhere in the one-hour long Google video does anyone suggest that Google modifies their search results to suppress conservatives.
Over the past month, President Trump himself has made accusations of bias, tweeting unfounded accusations against Google and Twitter.
Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
Business Insider reports that Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale has also made similar statements, saying that Google is a ‘threat to the republic’ after the publication of the leaked video.
. @google needs to explain why this isn’t a threat to the Republic. Watch the video. Google believes they can shape your search results and videos to make you “have their values”. Open borders. Socialism. Medicare 4 all. Congressional hearings! Investigate https://t.co/jlbSgMMrLT
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) September 12, 2018
