Since 2008, the IT giant in the United States has been promoting Democrats, “stifling” news production and “burying” links to sites for Republicans in search results

Google has been getting away with election interference for at least 16 years, and it shows no sign of stopping.

Speech America researchers collected information on 41 intervention cases Google in American elections starting in 2008, intensifying in 2016 and continuing until 2024. MRC researchers found carefully crafted studies and numerous reports (from 2008 to February 2024) that consistently demonstrate the tech giant’s election interference.

MRC founder and president Brent Bozell emphasized how dangerous Google’s election interference is. “Google’s extensive and deliberate efforts to interfere in American elections over the past 16 years are unacceptable and are the greatest threat to American democracy today,” Bozell said.

Over the years, Google has repeatedly used its power to help the most liberal candidates win the election and at the same time deal a blow to their opponents. In 2008, the company helped then-Sen. Barack Hussein Obama (D-Ill.), his favorite candidate in the primary, undermining his opponent, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York).

But after the Democrats suffered a landslide defeat in the 2016 elections, evidence collected by the MRC shows that election interference has become part of their mission. As one Google executive said in a secretly recorded interview, the company was actively working to “prevent the next Trump“.

Since Donald Trump became president, the frequency of the tech giant’s election interference has increased, from once every four years to once every two years. Each time, the company brushed off accusations of foul play. But taken together, Google’s interference in elections has been ongoing and growing in scope.

Below are some of the MRC’s key findings.

— In 2008, Google supported the young radical Senator Obama and censored publications for Senator Clinton. Journalist Simon Owens reported at the time that the tech giant had suspended the accounts of authors who blogged in support of Clinton and criticized Obama. “Almost everyone [подвергшихся цензуре блогеров] had three things in common,” Owens wrote. “Most of them blogged in support of Hillary Clinton, all were anti-Barack Obama, and some were registered on justsaynodeal.coman anti-Obama website.”

— Google allowed users to defame then-leading Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Google refused to fix the “Google bomb” that smeared Santorum. Google bombing used to be a way for users to manipulate Google’s algorithm and associate sites and names with unwanted search queries. Google search linked sites and terms if enough sites posted the same hyperlink to the same term or terms. The company previously announced that it was done with the popular Internet entertainment and even fixed the problem, when she touched on the White House web page for Obama. But when Santorum’s team brought this problem to Google’s attention, the platform flatly refused to solve it, once again giving preference to Obama.

— In 2016, Google used both its algorithm and its “partners” in a futile attempt to get Clinton over the finish line. SourceFed Research revealed that Google’s algorithm excluded potentially harmful autocomplete results for queries about Clinton’s alleged crimes and possible indictments during her controversial tenure as secretary of state. Google covered up its shortcomings and encouraged users to search for queries such as “Hillary Clinton crime reform” and “Hillary Clinton India” but did not do the same for other controversial candidate searches such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The platform also worked with “partners” to increase the Latino vote in hopes of supporting Clinton. according to internal correspondence, revealed by then-Fox News Channel primetime host Tucker Carlson. In a chain of leaked emails, one employee explains how Google did “silent donation”, partnering with its partner Voto Latino to pay for Latino voters to travel to the polls in “key states.” The tech giant also “helped them create advertising campaigns to promote the trips.” These and similar methods of election interference and censorship likely contributed to Google influencing 2.6 million votes in 2016, according to data scientist and research psychologist Robert Epstein.

Just as dramatically 2016 increased political tension in the country, the situation at Google has also changed. Shortly after the election, at a company-wide meeting, Google’s CFO Ruth Porat promised Google employees, that the company would use its “tremendous power, resources and reach” to promote its left-wing values. The company kept this promise, and after 2016 the scale of censorship at Google increased.

— Researchers have found clear evidence of election interference in 2018. The study showed, that Google’s “significant pro-liberal bias” would be enough to easily flip all three congressional districts in Orange County from Republican to Democratic. And indeed, all three counties turned blue. In the same election cycle, when users searched for this political party, Google noted “Nazism” as one of the ideologies of California Republicans. AllSides, a company that evaluates news outlets for political bias, found that just five percent of the stories Google links to on the Google News homepage are from right-wing outlets. In turn, the platform hosts 15 times more content from media outlets that AllSides defines as left-wing. Likewise, when you search “Trump” in the News tab, the first page of results shows up seven times more content from outlets that AllSides identifies as left-leaning than from those it considers right-wing.

— In 2020, Google chose its favorite and least favorite candidates and continued its biased censorship. During the 2020 Democratic primaries, the tech giant disabled Google Ads advertising account then-presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, just as she became the most popular candidate for search queries after the first Democratic primary debate. “Google’s discriminatory actions against my campaign highlight how dangerous their complete dominance over Internet search is and how Big Tech’s growing dominance over public discourse threatens our core American values,” Gabbard said in response to the incident in a statement to The New York Times. The tech giant was also accused of blocked emails about fundraising for the Republican Party in users’ email inboxes and sent out reminders to “go vote” only to democrats. These and similar election interference techniques likely contributed to Google influencing at least six million voter votes in 2020, according to research.

— In 2022, Google put its finger on the scale by censoring candidates in key races and continued to censor information from the media. An MRC Free Speech America study found that Google “buried” 83% of sites campaigns for Republicans in the most competitive Senate races. Ten of the 12 candidates did not appear in the top 6 search results, and seven did not appear on the first page of search results at all. In a similar search, MRC Free Speech America looked at how Google treated 10 politicians known for their legislative or public criticism of big tech corporations. The researchers found that Google buried the campaign websites of all 10 politicians, and seven of them did not appear on the first page of results at all. MRC Free Speech America analyzed search queries made in the state of Georgia during the 2022 Senate runoff elections between Senator Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R). It’s very telling that Google results favored Warnock in one of the precincts where a larger number of undecided voters are likely to live. The platform removed Walker’s site from the first page of results altogether. AllSides also once again found Google News to be biased in 2020. The company found that 61% of content posted on the Google News homepage refers to leftist media. At the same time, only three percent cite right-wing media—a 20 to 1 difference.

— The 2024 election cycle is coming, and Google has already begun to interfere in it. MRC Free Speech America found that Google “buried” sites election campaigns of all significant opponents of incumbent President Joe Biden (Robert Kennedy Jr. plus 15 Republican candidates). A Google search for “Republican presidential campaign websites” returned Democrat Mariana Williamson, but not former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and others. . In addition, Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard) AI service refused to answer questions regarding Biden’s two weakest points: the president’s mental health and the ongoing crisis at the Mexican border. Instead, the bot offered to answer election-related questions, which is what happened. “Elections are a complex topic with rapidly changing information,” Gemini said in response. “To make sure you have the latest and most accurate information, try using a Google search.”

Given the ongoing nature of Google’s interference in elections and censorship, the tech giant needs to be forced to get its act together. MRC Free Speech America recommends that Congress, state legislatures and American citizens take action to investigate Google and begin to limit its ability to interfere in American democracy.

— Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles) should direct the appropriate committees and committee chairs to investigate Google for violating people’s constitutional rights; coordinating with the government to violate freedom of speech; interference in elections by making unregistered in-kind donations; and deceiving users by non-compliance with the terms of service.

— State legislatures must decide whether Google is an essential provider, which it is; and they can follow the lead of Texas and Florida to ensure that a big tech company does not engage in conscientious discrimination.

— Americans should stop using Google products, particularly Google Search, and instead choose one of the many alternatives. According to our research, alternatives produce better and less biased results.

You can read the full MRC report Here.