How Google manipulates search results and influences elections – Rico Brouwer en dr. Robert Epstein
november 19, 2019
How Google manipulates your search results and influences elections worldwide.
The Minister of the interior in the Netherlands on Oct. 18th 2019 responded to a motion adopted in parliament last year, that called to investigate the ‘effects of social media and internet search engines on our elections’. But rather than answering the question that was asked in the motion, she responded by informing Dutch Parliament of her intent to ‘preemptively prevent disinformation from spreading’, referring to a report she added that labels some hundred Dutch alternative media outlets as outlets of hyperpartisan junknews.
Over the past seven years dr. Robert Epstein however did investigate this matter by doing two kinds of research. One goes into the ‘Search Engine Manipulation Effect', in which he substantiates to what extent biased search engine result will shift voters opinion. The other is that the actual answers that Google provides voters worldwide with, are in fact biased on a scale that has shifted millions of votes and will do even more in future elections.
In Café Weltschmerz, Robert Epstein explains to Rico Brouwer how this kind of votes manipulation works, how it is a threat to democracies worldwide and how it may be amended by US Congress or the European Union. The solution is simple. Epstein: ‘They would simply declare that Google’s index, the database that they use to generate search results, must be a public commons’.
The database underlying Google’s search engine is the most extensive database in the world, however it contains content that was scraped from other people’s websites. So the content in the database isn’t eve theirs.
For those searching for alternative search platforms or apps, some are listed on:
* https://switching.software/ethical-alternatives-to-google-search/
* Dr Epstein’s mentions his site mysevensimplesteps.com
Note about how Startpage searches: it anonymously proxies your search engine questions to the Google searchengine, rather than access the database -or index- of Google directly.
Startpage was mentioned by Privacytools.io in this nov. 12th article: https://blog.privacytools.io/delisting-startpage/
links:
* In between the Trump and Clinton tweets - https://twitter.com/DrREpstein/status/1163907153989521408
* Dutch report ‘THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MANIPULATION’ https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2019/10/18/rapport-politiek-en-sociale-media-manipulatie
* The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and itspossible impact on the outcomes of elections https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/33/E4512.full.pdf
* Epstein, R. (2018, May 17). Taming Big Tech: The case for monitoring. Hacker Noon. https://hackernoon.com/taming-big-tech-5fef0df0f00d
* Epstein, R., & Williams, E. (2019, April). Evidence of systematic political bias in online search results in the 10 days leading up to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Paper presented at the 99th annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Pasadena, CA. https://aibrt.org/downloads/EPSTEIN_&_WILLIAMS_2019-WPA-Evidence_of-search_engine_bias_related_to_2018_midterm_elections.pdf
* testimony before Congress, July 16, 2019, hearing on Google and censorship (7-min. video):https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4807816/congressionalhearing-16july2019-testimonybydrrobertepstein
* article about how Congress, the DOJ, the FTC, or the EU can quickly and permanently end Google's worldwide monopoly on search: Epstein, R. (2019, Jul 15). To break Google's monopoly, make its index public. Bloomberg Businessweek. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-15/to-break-google-s-monopoly-on-search-make-its-index-public
* Epstein, R. (2019, July 16). Why Google poses a serious threat to democracy, and how to end that threat. Congressional Record of the United States. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Epstein%20Testimony.pdf
* Epstein in Glenn Beck show (17 sept 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5nhXrPVW4Q // (oct 7 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FReM8Bc3I4k
* ‘How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results’(Wall Street Journal, 15 nov. 2019) https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-interferes-with-its-search-algorithms-and-changes-your-results-11573823753
