The power of social media and Big Tech platforms to influence and even control public discourse, public opinion and the democratic process is among the unintended and unanticipated consequences of the internet revolution. It had not had anywhere near the focus on it from the government and the news media, and the public is disturbingly ignorant and apathetic regarding how their own autonomy and freedoms of thought and speech are being distorted—in part, because the beneficiaries of social media and Big Tech power want them to be ignorant and apathetic. The proverbial frog is boiling. Many frogs, in fact.

The post yesterday about a revival of the 2020 claim by a researcher that Google had “steered” 6 million votes to Joe Biden in the 2020 election generated several provocative comments. Here’s one of them (#2 is on the way): a Comment of the Day by Ryan Harkins on the post, “Observations On The Revived Claim That Google “Steered 6 Million Votes” to Biden in 2020”:

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All the way back in 2016, I was looking for some good white sheets on Alarm Rationalization, the methodology in accordance with ISA 18.2 by which process automation alarms are given priority and justification in control systems. The only words I used in the Google search were those two: “alarm” and “rationalization”. Ethics Alarms was the #2 hit on that search. That is how I found Ethics Alarms in the very first place.

I personally have seen the effects of Google favoring websites and search results that favor the narratives Google favors. This has occurred even on Google’s search engine for scholarly papers. Unless you are absolutely specific on the name of the paper, if it doesn’t fit Google’s preferences, the paper is buried pages down, if you can find it at all. And that is hugely problematic because I believe most people will not go more than a couple pages into a Google search. I know if I have to go that far, I need to stop and redo my query terms.

This is one more piece in the realm of fears and concerns that the conservatives in the nation possess. As a reminder, that list is as follows:

1. The Left controls the mainstream media.

2. The Left controls the public schools.

3. The Left controls social media.

4. The Left controls higher education.

5. The Left controls the IRS.

6. The Left controls the FBI.

7. The Left controls banking.

8. The Left controls research funding.

9. The Left controls entertainment institutions like Hollywood and Disney.

10. The Left controls a large chunk of the judiciary.

11. The Left currently controls the Senate.

12. The Left currently controls the Presidency and all its executive powers.

Now we can add the the Left controls the flow of information through search engines. DuckDuckGo and others are fine, but the vast majority of people use Google, just as the majority of people use mainstream media for news, public schools and universities for education, social media for interaction, and so on.

While I’m sure there are plenty of objections to this list, the point is less about its accuracy in reality and more that it is the perception of conservatives. Conservatives (at least the vocal ones) believe that they are being sidelined and forced out of the public square. The consistent narrative from the Left is that anything conservatives believe is wrong and should be repressed and eradicated without any debate. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the justification, “would you really give a platform to a flat-earther?” By that, of course, is meant that there are beliefs out there so obviously at odds with what we know, there is no credible justification for believing them, and conservative beliefs fall into that category.

What conservatives fear is that they will no longer have any means of defending themselves through the standard institutions. They fear that they will no longer have any means of even making a living. The Left doesn’t have power over all corporations, but the DEI initiatives (which fortunately seem to be backfiring to some extent) have wormed their way into so many businesses, and while they come with such nice-sounding platitudes, such as “hate has no place at our business” and “we want everyone to feel welcome and appreciated”, in reality they are tools that make it easy to rid companies of anyone who isn’t lockstep with progressive values. Conservative businesses and organizations have experienced the weight of the IRS and banking institutions placing extreme pressure on them to back down from conservative values or risking auditing and de-banking.

The problem with Google slanting searches seems less insidious than some of these other issues, but the flow of information is important. We have an unprecedented access to the sum total knowledge of mankind, so that in just a few seconds we can gather facts about Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar, about the Han Dynasty or Attila the Hun. We can search for tips on how to plant a garden, take care of a particular pest, or fix a washing machine. We can look up encyclopedia articles, scholarly papers, news clippings, and on, and on, and on. But in all of this, if the algorithms are tweaked to make certain information unavailable, or at least less prevalent, that steers the public consciousness. We like to believe we’re a data-driven society, and being able to call up something that justifies our beliefs with a quick Google search is a great tool to win an argument. But if Google actually can’t be trusted to present the data as is, then what people find when they use a Google search might not actually be the full story.

Make it difficult to find any contrary analysis to a particular hot topic, and a preferred position gets the benefit of people reading all the evidence for that position. Those who support the contrary then struggle to find the contrary analyses, and it shuts them down in conversation and advocacy. It can even make them doubt themselves. It keeps them from gathering together to make a larger voice. And it is insidious, because it is very difficult to prove. Is it the case that there isn’t information out there that defends my position, or is it the case that the information is being suppressed? Everyone keeps saying I’m crazy because the information really isn’t out there, and suggesting it is being suppressed is a conspiracy theory. So maybe I really am falling for a right-wing conspiracy theory? Maybe I need to bias my opinion a little more to the mainstream option just so I can keep my voice heard?