US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has accused Google of "rigging" its search results against him by prioritising negative news stories about his presidency and suppressing right-wing outlets.
Taking to Twitter once again today, Mr Trump claimed the search engine was "hiding information and news that is good" regarding his administration in what amounted to a "very serious situation".
The President wrote in a pair of early morning tweets (bizarrely reposted this afternoon) that Google searches for 'Trump News' yielded only "the viewing/reporting of Fake [News] Media".
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 & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
He added: "In other words, they [Google] 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 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!"
....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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
In a statement, Google owners Alphabet Inc. said that searches were "not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology".
“We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment," the company said.
President Trump's latest outburst comes just weeks after he defended Google as one of America's "greatest companies" in July, following a record $5 billion EU fine against the search engine over its mobile phone operating system.
The 72-year-old has significantly changed his tune in little over a month, and tweeted just last Friday that social media giants were "silencing millions of people" around the world.
Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018
