Trump Administration Considering Regulating Google Searches

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it will consider regulating Google search results.

On August 28, President Trump published a series of tweets expressing his belief that Google is “rigged” to suppress conservative views:

“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories and news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% 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!”

Following this threat, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters that the White House is “taking a look” at regulating Google. Riva Sciuto, a spokeswoman for Google, told the Washington Post that Google search “is not used to set a political agenda, and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology.”

According to the Post, the Trump administration’s threat has been criticized by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, free speech advocates, and tech experts, since government regulation of Google search results would constitute a violation of the First Amendment.