Trump Accuses Google, Facebook and Twitter of Left-wing Bias

It has been reported that President Trump has suggested that Google, Twitter and Facebook may be breaking the law by favouring left-wing views. The president said the White House was “going to see” whether the companies needed to be regulated, as he continued his attack on Silicon Valley.

Evgeny Chereshnev, CEO and founder of Biolink.Tech, said: "It's not fair to say that tech giants are either left or right wing. It’s a case of ‘don’t shoot the messenger’. Google’s crawlers index every article that exists on the internet, including those on Twitter and other social platforms. Once an article goes live online, it is immediately indexed and available via search engines. Facebook is also a content delivery platform, because people share what they think is important.

"I think what we’re seeing here is a misunderstanding about how the distribution of news actually works. I don’t think President Trump understands how a search engine works and that they are topic agnostic; they simply show what is hot right now.

"I think that it's very dangerous to try to attack Silicon Valley companies for being untrue, invalid or spreading fake news. This can do a lot of damage that could be potentially irreversible, because the Internet is a very fragile thing - especially when it comes to the regulation of freedom of speech.

"Once something is restricted, it's very hard to go back. It's not something that the next President could simply reverse, because most businesses and business models depend on it. Any statements connected to the regulation of Google, Facebook, Twitter and other tech giants must be carefully thought through and discussed with industry experts who have the expertise to discuss how it's going to affect current jobs and freedom of information.

"On the other hand, some of the concerns Trump has may be legitimate. Today, the information that’s available to the public is greatly influenced by who owns the source of the news and who is paying for contextual advertising. You can buy legitimate (and some slightly shadier) tools to make your content more widely available and more effectively indexed. If you have enough money, you could technically influence the spread of information, as proven by Cambridge Analytica. These tech giants are transparent about how it works, but we need to regulate the amount of influence one can make."