Google News Is Politically Biased. Does It Contribute to Political Polarization in America?
By John Gable
A new report by AllSides reveals Google News results are biased. While that doesn’t mean it’s intentional or rigged, it reveals questions about Google’s role in political polarization among Americans.
After President Trump tweeted on Aug. 28 that Google is biased against him, AllSides conducted extensive research to determine if that was the case.
What we found: 65% of Google News search results point to Left or Left-Leaning media outlets, but there is no evidence that it’s rigged.
Google processes a whopping 3.5 billion searches per day. No doubt, many Americans rely on Google to conduct research and understand the world.
AllSides’ mission is to free people from filter bubbles so they can better understand the world — and each other. We provide balanced news and media bias ratings to expose people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum.
Because Google operates what can be considered a popularity algorithm — with the most popular links and sources floating to the top of search results — Google News bias may be due to the fact that most online news comes from a Left perspective. Online news consumers are also younger and lean farther Left than the average American, and that directly impacts which articles Google’s algorithm selects and how high it places them on the page. But is this serving Americans, or just polarizing us further?
Currently, most online technologies place a spotlight on the most popular perspectives, or provide the perspective that most fits the reader. This can reduce our ability to know the whole story and decide for ourselves.
Now that Google News bias has been revealed, the tech giant has an opportunity to decide how it shapes the world. Does Google want to be a popularity algorithm? (If so, it’s doing great.) Or does it want to empower people to see multiple perspectives and think for themselves?
Reducing political polarization in America may require the latter.
John Gable is President of AllSides.com, a website providing balanced news and media bias ratings. He is author of a patent for measuring and displaying bias, and previously worked at Microsoft and Netscape.
