An expert on Google testified in a judiciary hearing in front of Ted Cruz and other, about how the top search engine company manipulated millions of votes in favor of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. Dr. Robert Epstein, who supported Clinton, feels sure that Google can and will influence voters again in 2020:
At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Google and Censorship through Search Engines,” Dr. Epstein explained that Google impacted at least 2.6 million votes to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, “through bias and search results.” He stressed that the 2.6 million estimate was on the low end of a range that he believes could have been as many as 10.4 million votes.
He then explained how Google manipulated it’s users through a variety of techniques that he labeled the “search engine manipulation effect”, “the search suggestion effect”, “the answer bot effect” among others.
As an example, Google, Facebook or Twitter could send voting reminders to Democrats but not Republican voters on election day. There would be no way to know if the company was do so and it would cost their owners nothing financially to do so.
Epstein warned the committee:
In 2020, you can bet that all of these companies are going to go all out, and the methods they are using are invisible, they’re subliminal, they are more powerful than most any effects I’ve ever seen in behavioral sciences and I’ve been in behavioral sciences for almost 40 years.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was Hillary Clinton’s largest corporate supporter during the 2016 campaign cycle. According to OpenSecrets.org, Alphabet donated $1.6 million to Clinton’s campaign.
Cruz voiced his concerns about Big Tech, saying:
We have no way of knowing if Google or Facebook or Twitter sends things to Democrats or Republicans or how they bias it because its a black box with no transparency or accountability whatsoever.
Epstein warned suggested that Googles search index needed to be made public, which would make its rank and order information more transparent.
