Google's Search Algorithm Could Steal the Presidency | Hacker News Reader

Google's Search Algorithm Could Steal the Presidency

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27 pointsshahryc8 comments

Google is simply another avenue for information. You could just as easily change the title to "Television Could Steal the Presidency".

If you asked 2,000 undecided voters (BTW, if you're undecided when you go to the polls, don't vote) to read news articles in a left or right wing publication, I'd bet the voter would likely be persuaded.

This is why we see so many commercials on TV right before an election.

To me, the real issue is people not spending enough time researching a candidate.

> To me, the real issue is people not spending enough time researching a candidate.

I feel like the voters are kind of powerless in the election process. Most politicians are backed by giant corps and big money, and even the debates are rigged and the candidates are supplied with pre-selected questions, and the gerrymandering going on, sometimes it feels like we can't really affect the outcome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pji_IX-UacM

The manipulation of Google data (Google Bombing) has been going on for years in political circles. The only problem here is Google takes its time removing bad links for Republicans, but for Democrats, they have bad links taken down in a matter of days.

Case in point? The obvious manipulation of Google results for Rick Santorum (a Republican presidential candidate at one point) which continued to have x-rated results for his name when searched in Google FOR OVER 6 YEARS.

Compare that to other quick searches for Anthony Weiner or John Edwards and you hardly get one or two bad stories about them in the first ten results.

Maybe it's just harder to distinguish Rick Santorum and a porn star. How would you do it? Or maybe nobody cared enough to Google Bomb Weiner and Edwards.

Or maybe memes against Democrats didn't get legs like the Santorum thing did.

I just googled "who is the next president?" and got this: http://imgur.com/eV8W5zr

Although I can't imagine this strongly affecting someone's decision, the subtler issue of result ordering (especially based on previous search history) is an interesting one.

"In other words: Google’s ranking algorithm for search results could accidentally steal the presidency. “We estimate, based on win margins in national elections around the world,” says Robert Epstein, a psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and one of the study’s authors, “that Google could determine the outcome of upwards of 25 percent of all national elections."

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