Google is hiding the campaign websites of its most ardent critics on Capitol Hill.
Soon after MRC Free Speech America published its study showing that Google suppressed Senate Republicans campaign websites in its search engine results, it appears that Google is now hitting both the House of Representatives and the Senate members who have been critical about Google’s tactics. This happens just as the country prepares to vote in the midterm elections on November 8.
“First, Google was caught sending GOP email to spam. We found out that Google was suppressing the campaign websites for Republican Senate candidates. We now have evidence that Google is punishing Republicans for speaking out or taking action against Big Tech. They hide their campaign websites from search results,” stated Brent Bozell, President of MRC. “If this isn’t election interference, then I don’t know what it is.”
MRC Free Speech America analyzed search data from Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo for 10 key congressional elections involving politicians who have aggressively acted in opposition to Big Tech, either vocally or legislatively. Our researchers found that Google again buried Republican Party campaign websites, while highlighting their Democratic or independent opponent’s campaign sites in organic searches results. These results are a follow-up to MRC Free Speech America’s previous searches engine studies on hotly contested Senate and House races. Polling shows that the House is not in the balance.
MRC Free Speech America researchers discovered that Google search results highlighted the Republican challenger in all 10 of Senate and House races.
Google buried the campaign websites for lawmakers who were critical of Big Tech. Google censored 100 percent of search results for Big Tech critics. They either ranked their sites lower than their challengers, or completely omitted Republican Big Tech critics’ campaign websites from the first page.
Google completely hidden seven of the total 10 campaign websites of Republican Big Tech Critics in its page one organic search results. Google’s organic search did not show seven of the 10 campaign websites of Big Tech critics. Google also placed 67 percent of Big Tech critics’ campaign websites in the top six organic search results.
Google displayed a more severe search bias than DuckDuckGo and Bing. Comparatively, Bing’s search results for the exact same searches were more neutral. Bing’s search results highlighted the Republican opponent’s campaign websites 5 times out of 10. DuckDuckGo raised the campaign websites of Republican opponents in 4 out 10 races.
According to Business Insider, more than 90 percent of all searches are done on Google. This could have a significant impact on the 2022 midterm elections.
The search engine didn’t show any campaign websites for Republican Senators. Rand Paul (KY), and Ron Johnson (WI), were not listed on the first page. Google listed Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), campaign website No. 20 when MRC searched it in a clean environment. All three of the aforementioned Congressional leaders have been reelected.
Google ranked all three of these lawmakers’ campaign challengers – Democrats Javier Garcia Ramos and Charles Booker – as No. 3, No. 3, No. 8 search results, respectively.
Biggs stated that the suppression of our campaign website was just one example of a long history Google and Big Tech biases against conservatives in a statement to MRC Free Speech America.
Biggs has repeatedly called out Big Tech censorship. This was even after YouTube, owned by Google, removed two days worth of speeches from a March CPAC conference. He also promised to end Big Tech and remove tech platforms from their Section 230 liability protections within the first 100 days.
Biggs said that YouTube had censored CPAC speeches for two days in March. The platform then censored 17 former members of Congress and two potential presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott. “Manipulating search result results has an insidious effect on elections and will likely continue unless Congress acts to end these unfair practices.”
Google removed the campaign website of Sen. John Kennedy (R.-LA), the incumbent Big Tech critic, from its first page search results while ranking the campaign websites his three Democrat challengers – Gary Chambers, Luke Mixon, and Syrita Steib – at the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 7 spots, respectively. (Louisiana’s primary system places all candidates on the same ballot regardless of primary. If one candidate fails to get 50 percent, there is a runoff.
Kennedy cosponsored legislation to ban Gmail and all other email providers from using algorithms to mark certain political campaign emails spam. A North Carolina State University (NC State), March 2013 study found that Gmail marked 59% more right-leaning candidate emails as spam than left-leaning ones.
Kennedy has also aggressively hammered the Biden administration’s anti-“disinformation” efforts to target certain information online. Kennedy signed a Senate petition calling for the defunding of the now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board. Biden’s administration has collaborated with Big Tech companies in a variety of capacities to censor “disinformation.”
Kennedy asked the question during a May 2022 hearing. He was met with fierce opposition by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Kennedy stated that Google was interfering with democracy through its suppression of search results in a statement to MRC Free Speech America.
Kennedy stated that Big Tech is playing dangerously undemocratic games by picking winners and losers in its search results. “Everyone has the right to express their opinions and find the information they need in the public domain. Big companies shouldn’t be able block, manipulate, hide or conceal that knowledge from anyone.
MRC Free Speech America Google-searched candidates for Wisconsin’s Senate seat. It found that incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson did worse than the previous search on Oct. 7. MRC used Google to search for Johnson on Oct. 25. However, Google did not include Johnson on the first page of results but ranked Mandela Barnes as his Democrat challenger at No. 8. Google had ranked Johnson No. 13 and Barnes No. 5 during the Oct. 5th search.
Johnson stated that it was not surprising that Big Tech is putting their thumbs on the scale for their preferred candidates. Johnson spoke to MRC Free Speech America. “They have the power to influence elections. We’ve seen it before in 2020 with Hunter Biden’s laptop reporting, COVID-19 lockdowns, and school closings. In September, past executives from these companies admitted to me that their platforms could influence elections during a Senate hearing. Big Tech must be held accountable to the American people, and Democrats are not going be the ones to do this.
Johnson, who is arguably Big Tech’s most antagonistic figure, quizzed former and current Big Tech executives from Google YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok at a September hearing on topics such as social media election influence and censoring information COVID-19.
Johnson also requested YouTube to send him internal documents regarding the censorship of his videos as well as the multiple suspensions he had been subject to. In 2021, Google YouTube suspended Johnson and removed a video that discussed possible COVID-19 treatments.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), has proposed antitrust actions as an alternative option to combat the bias of Big Tech companies such as Google.
Buck introduced the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act. This would ensure that antitrust cases initiated by state attorneys general will remain in the jurisdiction where they were brought and not be transferred to other courts. This bill is particularly relevant for Big Tech because antitrust cases involving this industry often transfer to California’s Northern District, where many tech companies are located. These companies have also received favorable rulings in recent times.
In September, Buck’s bill passed in the House. Google seems to be targeting him as well. The platform ranked Buck’s campaign website No. 1 in search results. 15 on the first page. Google highlighted Ike McCorkle, his Democratic opponent, as the third result.
Buck also worked bipartisanly to advance antitrust-related legislation to limit the acquisitions of the four largest tech companies, Apple, Google Meta, Amazon, and Meta, and to prevent them favoring their products on their platforms.
Buck stated to MRC Free Speech America that “Democracy can’t stand if Google – which controls ninety per cent of search results – is burying one or the other.” “If they were doing this to Democrats, I would be upset. But Google isn’t targeting Democrats.
Potential Legal Violation
Hans von Spakovsky is an attorney and manager of The Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative. He stated that Google’s suppression search results could be a violation of election law.
“It is illegal for a corporation make a direct financial donation to a candidate but the law and regulations also prohibit unreported in-kind services,” von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), told MRC Free Speech America. “If Google is actually burying the website and restricting information about one candidate, that’s an in kind service for that campaign.”
Von Spakovsky stated that campaigns often hire web experts to ensure that their websites appear at the top of internet searches. This is what candidates must list under U.S. electoral law.
He said that if Google is systematically suppressing candidates, “then, yes, that is an illegal in-kind contribution to a candidate, no different to a corporation providing [help] to a candidate.” “This is an example of an illegal in-kind contribution.
FEC defines an “in-kind contribution” as a “nonmonetary contribution.”
FEC rulings often boil down to party lines and legal interpretations by the commissioners deciding the case. Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of Foundation for Accountability and Civil Trust, told MRC Free Speech America.
She said that the case of Google’s suppression of certain candidates in search results has an additional layer of complexity. The technology aspect of Google’s search would need to be explained and proven. Google is known for keeping its search algorithms secret. Failure to hold Google and the tech industry accountable could make future elections meaningless, as it would allow Big Tech “get away [with subliminal manipulation],” liberal psychologist and researcher Dr. Robert Epstein said during 2019 Senate testimony.
It would be more difficult to prove an election law violation in the case Google search suppression. “Because by nature it’s more visible and is more factual intensive than other cases which are quite simple,” Arnold said. He gave the example of an advertisement that everyone can see.
Google did not respond on MRC Free Speech America’s request for comment.
Methodology
MRC Free Speech America analyzed Oct. 25 Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo search results for campaign websites of lawmakers deemed critical of Big Tech based upon MRC Free Speech America’s reports. The Republican Party candidates in the congressional races were those from the following states and districts.
MRC Free Speech America developed an algorithm to automate this process in a clean setting. Organic search can be performed in a “clean environment” without the influence of tracking cookies or prior search history.
MRC Free Speech America researchers used the algorithm to search each candidate’s name using the words “House Race 2022” and “Senate Race 2022”. Our researchers looked at Google’s results to determine if there was bias and then recorded the rank of each candidate’s campaign website.
Example(s): “Andy Biggs House Race 2020” and “Javier Garcia Ramos House Race 2020”.
Conservatives are being attacked. Your representatives should be contacted to demand that Big Tech is held accountable to the First Amendment and provide equal treatment for conservatives. Contact us via CensorTrack’s form if you feel your voice has been blocked. We will help you hold Big Tech responsible.
