Revelations of Google tweaking its search algorithm to promote its leaders’ political and ideological leanings have led to strong statements of protest from company spokespersons, yet new information continues to emerge on just how skewed search results may be. Are more Internet users coming to understand not everything on the ‘net is as it seems, as they’ve discovered about mainstream media?
By Dave Gahary
For readers who still believe that Google is simply an Internet search engine, a recently leaked video recorded at the company’s “first all-hands meeting” on the Friday after the 2016 U.S. presidential election should put that silly thought to rest.
The 63-minute video—which “reveals an atmosphere of panic and dismay amongst the tech giant’s leadership, coupled with a determination to thwart both the Trump agenda and the broader populist movement emerging around the globe”—was sent anonymously to Breitbart News, and features co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as Google’s chief executive and financial officers and a few vice presidents, who appear to be in a state of subdued shock at the election results.
Soviet-born to Jewish parents, Brin co-founded Google with Page, whose mother was Jewish and whose father made aliyah to Israel. Aliyah, literally “ascent,” means moving to Israel, one of Zionism’s most basic tenets. Israel’s “law of return” grants Jews and their descendants automatic residency rights and Israeli citizenship.
Page and Brin are the 9th and 10th richest people in the world, with net worths of $53.6 billion and $52.1 billion respectively.
In early September it was also revealed—via a leaked email written by Google’s “multicultural marketing” chief—that the tech giant tried to assist Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations by boosting Latino turnout.
In the leaked video—marked “Confidential-Internal Only”—the Google heads disparage Trump voters and scheme to use their billions to thwart the president’s agenda.
Brin, who opens up the meeting, assumes that “most people here are pretty upset and pretty sad because of the election.” He calls Trump supporters “fascists and extremists,” saying that, similar to other extremists, people who voted for Trump did so out of “boredom rather than legitimate concerns,” which he claims has led to fascism and communism in the past. He continues by saying, “As an immigrant and a refugee, I certainly find this election deeply offensive, and I know many of you do, too.” Claiming that “it’s a very stressful time and it [Trump’s victory] conflicts with many of our values,” Brin, who vows to get even with the misguided American electorate, is backed up by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who announces the company’s plans to develop artificial intelligence machines to counter the “misinformation” of “low-information voters,” i.e., anyone who voted for Trump.
There is hope on the horizon for all of the “deplorables,” however, as former Department of Justice prosecutor Larry Klayman—who helped break up AT&T’s monopoly in the 1980s—filed a class action lawsuit on Aug. 29 alleging “Google/YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and Instagram conspired by entering into an explicit or tacit agreement, in parallel to each other, to restrain trade in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.”
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which regulates commercial competition, is divided into three sections. Section 1 states:
Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several declared to be illegal.
Freedom Watch v. Google/YouTube et. al, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, “alleges that the intent and effect of this agreement in restraint of trade is to quash and/or limit advocacy by conservative and pro-Trump public interest groups, advocates, and others to further the leftist anti-conservative agendas of these social media giants and to help bring down the Trump presidency and nullify the vote of the millions of citizens who voted for the president.”
Judging from the latest revelations coming out of Silicon Valley, as well the nearly $3 billion fine levied by the European Union in 2017 against Google for “promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results,” Klayman’s allegations have the potential to gain some traction.
But the fact that Google is an awesome competitor cannot, and should not, be discounted. Earlier this year, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported over $100 billion in annual sales—a first in Google’s 20-year history—with total annual revenue topping $110 billion, up from around $90 billion in 2016.
Dave Gahary, a former submariner in the U.S. Navy, prevailed in a suit brought by the New York Stock Exchange in an attempt to silence him. Dave is the producer of an upcoming film about the attack on the USS Liberty. See the website erasingtheliberty.com for more information.
