It appears Google’s sordid manipulation of users has even run afoul of leftists it has attempted to ingratiate itself with.
Politico reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration’s Justice Department joined California, New York, Virginia, and other states in a lawsuit that accuses the Big Tech giant of manipulating search results and ads for the company’s benefit. The lawsuit also accuses Google of forcing users to use its own products and services as opposed to those of its competitors. The lawsuit comes after MRC Free Speech America’s study showing how Google was manipulating search results to benefit Democrats and disadvantage Republicans in highly contested senate races in the 2022 midterm elections.
“Google has behaved so shamelessly and terribly that it has made enemies on both sides of the aisle,” VP of MRC Free Speech America Dan Schneider said in a statement. “It has only itself to blame.”
The complaint alleged that “Google abuses its monopoly power to disadvantage website publishers and advertisers who dare to use competing ad tech products in a search for higher quality, or lower cost, matches.” In addition, “Google uses its dominion over digital advertising technology to funnel more transactions to its own ad tech products where it extracts inflated fees to line its own pockets at the expense of the advertisers and publishers it purportedly serves.”
For its part, Google denied any wrongdoing and insists that the government is using the lawsuit as an excuse to meddle in the “highly competitive advertising technology sector.”
“‘Today’s lawsuit from the DOJ attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector,’” Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels reportedly told Politico. “‘It largely duplicates an unfounded lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General, much of which was recently dismissed by a federal court. DOJ is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.’”
Google has faced bipartisan criticism for its monopolistic business practices that have permitted it to exercise enormous control over the search engine market. This influence is perhaps most evident in the company’s one-sided censorship efforts to stifle content that goes against the leftist narrative on controversial issues.
In a recent study detailing Big Tech’s pro-abortion bias, MRC Free Speech America analyzed search engine results for the word “pregnancy” in a “clean environment” from Google and its competitors. Not surprisingly, the researchers discovered Google’s first search result linked to America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, while search results from Bing and DuckDuckGo displayed more neutral results.
Google also banned pro-life group Live Action’s ads, including the organization’s Abortion Pill Reversal ads. “They aren’t hiding their bias anymore: @Google’s censorship of critical pro-life information shows a blatant double standard & reckless disregard for human life & women’s health,” Live Action founder and president Lila Rose tweeted at the time. “Google must fairly apply its own policies & immediately restore pro-life ads…”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency and an equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.