Will Google decide who wins the election?

[Esper]

I feel like this is more relevant to discussion here than in the technology forums.

"[O]ur research suggests that no matter how innocent or disinterested Google's employees may be, Google's search algorithm, propelled by user activity, has been determining the outcomes of close elections worldwide for years, with increasing impact every year because of increasing Internet penetration"

It talks about how Google could (or does?) have the power to sway different demographics of voters by anywhere from 20% to 80% based on its search rankings and ultimately up to 25% of elections. It cites the recent election in India in which Modi was elected and had been ranking much higher in Google's searches. It also provides an experiment showing how the order of search results can sway a voter's sense or trust in a candidate. The article gives three possible scenarios in which Google could sway an election

1. The people at the top of Google intentionally chose a candidate and give them better ranking in search results
2. A rogue employee with enough technical skills could do the same without anyone knowing
3. The algorithms Google uses "organically" favor one candidate

Here is the article: https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...e-2016-election-121548_full.html#.Ve80bpfqVTb
Here is Google's response: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/google-2016-election-121766

(In essence, Google says that it would not do any of this stuff because their business is in getting people to trust search results.)

So, what do you think? Crazy conspiracy theory or genuine concern? Does Google have the power described?

 

[Livewire]

If anything, I guess google could be some kind of collective consciousness (lol) of mankind, where everybody's combined searches paints a picture of what an entire group of people are thinking. Now, if the search results were biased or influenced in any way, like if you googled Bernie Sanders and caught a bunch of defamatory articles, etc., and only got good ones for Clinton, Trump, etc., that that would be a real problem. I think Google is a mirror and reflects what people put in front of it, if that makes sense.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Currently I think it is more of a mirror of what people search for, but I also think that it can be used to sway the masses one way or another to their perferred candidate (or an employee's.)

 

[Rogue planet]

I don't think so. Modi arguably turns up so many results because he was heading for a clear victory.

A google search into a large amount of politicians reveals that they are in fact complete and utter psychopaths and I would like to think that wouldn't boost their support.

 

[Melody]

There's not much Google can do to the search results that would not violate their own ethos of 'Do no evil'.

That said, there is some danger of manipulation, but the chances of this are slim to none. Google likely monitors and controls sensitive access stringently. In my opinion this sounds like something a candidate would accuse Google of if their poll numbers sucked, its nothing substantive. I hate it when people start milling around and spewing Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt articles like this and preying on the uninformed masses to do their dirty work for them.

I don't see any reason why this article isn't needlessly inflammatory, it conveniently ignores the fact that most of the candidates actually have bad things in their past that reveal how unsuitable they are for office.

 

[twocows]

Doubtful. They might have some small degree of influence but not much more.

There's not much Google can do to the search results that would not violate their own ethos of 'Do no evil'.

I believe that is nothing more than a popular misnomer; that's never been an official compnay-endorsed line as far as I know. I seem to remember it was something one of their employees described as their general attitude in the mid-2000s. Hilariously, they've been trying to let it die ever since because they actually want to be able to do evil without people calling them hypocrites.