Trump: Big Tech Biased, Should be Investigated

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Google was trying to "rig" the 2020 election. 

That came in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox Business Network. He called both Twitter and Google biased and said they "should be sued," according to Fox. He said rather than the Mueller "witch hunt," it's those Big Tech platforms that should be investigated.  

Trump also said Twitter was making it hard for people to follow him and "much harder" for him to get out his message. Asked by Bartiromo what he was going to do about it, the President said: "These people are all Democrats. It's totally biased toward Democrats...Twitter, it's just terrible what they do. I see what's happening. You may need legislation to create competition." 

(It has appeared to become harder to find the President's official Twitter feed. Up until a few weeks ago, putting the President's name in the Twitter search bar brought up that account with a scroll-roll or three of the mouse, which is no longer the case, though it comes up high in a Google search.)  

The President did not explain why he thought Google was out to rig the election, but conservative investigative video outfit Veritas did publish a new video this week purportedly of a Google exec puhsing back on Elizabeth Warren's call to break up Big Tech, saying powerful platforms were necessary to prevent the President's re-election, or what she called another "Trump situation" in 2020. 

"We build our products with extraordinary care and safeguards to be a trustworthy source of information for everyone, without any regard for political viewpoint, said a Google spokesperson. "Our rating guidelines are publicly visible for all to see." 

It was the latest in a series Veritas says shows the Silicon Valley is biased against conservatives. 

It was also the latest in a series of attacks on social media by the President, who continues to claim they are politically biased against him, a note sounded by Republicans in Congress as well, particularly Ted Cruz of Texas, who brought up the latest Veritas video, and the allegation Google was  working against the President's reelection, at a Hill hearing this week featuring a different Google exec. 

Maggie Stanphill, director of Google user experience, told Cruz she had not seen or reviewed the Veritas report, but that Google "was built for every single political affiliation." Cruz said the documents raised very serious questions about political bias at the company." 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.