Donald Trump’s rants against news outlets that are critical of him often surface in the form of tweetstorms, criticizing journalists and singing the praise of certain media outlets that paint a positive picture of the US President when they cover him. But Trump has now turned his attention to Google calling it out for rigging the ‘Search Results’ and suppressing the good news about him and his followers as a whole.
In a series of Tweets sent out some hours ago, Trump claimed that Google Search Results for the term ‘Trump News’ shows only the results covered by ‘Fake New Media’, which only shows bad news and stories about the President and his administration. On his Twitter handle, he said;
Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New 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
And as if ‘Fake New Media’ was not clear enough, Trump eventually namedropped CNN, pointing out that such media outlets control what the masses see on the internet and what they can’t when they search for news related to him. To back up his claims, he added that a staggering 96% of the Search Results for the term ‘Trump News’ are from ‘National Left-Wing Media’. However, he did not mention any research source or credible survey report from where the ‘96%’ figure was obtained.
Rings a bell?…..Not the first time Google has been accused
Trump is not the first person to accuse Google of rigging search results. Even here in Zimbabwe, the President’s Advisor once raised an objection to how Google presents information on Zimbabwe in its search results. Outside of Zimbabwe, Google was even fined $21 million in India and €2.4 billion in European Union for rigging search results.
Anyway, back to Trump
Trump did not mince words in claiming that ‘Google and others’ are suppressing the voice of Conservatives and that any information and news which is good, is hidden from the public. He later called the situation ‘very serious’ and added that it will be ‘addressed’, without specifying when or how will he tackle the so-called issue of Google and media outlets trying to portray him in a negative image. On his Twitter handle, he went on to say;
….results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!
