Online:
Visits:
Stories:
Profile image
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

By manipulating its search results, Google could decide the next election

Saturday, August 22, 2015 11:12
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

BY MANIPULATING ITS SEARCH RESULTS, GOOGLE COULD DECIDE THE NEXT ‘ELECTION’

YOU MEAN OVERRIDE GEORGE SOROS’ BOUGHT AND RUN ‘VOTE COUNTER’ MACHINES?! NAH!  NEVER!!! MAYBE NEVER? MAYBE?

What the heck is Alphabet?

The world’s most-used search engine is so powerful and national elections are so tight, that even a tiny tweak in Google’s (GOOGL, Tech30) secret algorithm could swing the 2016 presidential election, according to Robert Epstein, senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technolo

In an op-ed on Politico.com, Epstein said that he and a team of researchers studied behavior in undecided voters who had been exposed to rigged search results. By displaying results that shone a more favorable light on a particular candidate the researchers could shift opinion towards that favored candidate.

The study boosted a candidate’s favorability rating by between 37% and 63% after just one 15-minute search session. The five double-blind, randomized studies included 4,500 undecided voters in the United States and India. 

A Google spokeswoman said that the company’s algorithm is designed to provide “relevant answers,” and rigging them to favor one view over another “would undermine the people’s trust in our results and company.” 

Epstein said Google’s response was “meaningless.”
“How does providing ‘relevant answers’ to election-related questions rule out the possibility of favoring one candidate over another in search rankings? Epstein wrote in his op-ed. “Google’s statement seems far short of a blanket denial that it ever puts its finger on the scales.” 

The research suggested that swinging an election was “well within Google’s control,” considering that President Obama won the 2012 election by just 3.9% and the 2016 polling is similarly too close to call. 

Though Epstein falls short of saying that Google would rig an election, he points to historical precedent suggesting that Google wouldn’t be alone if it tried. 

Epstein pointed to Western Union’s attempt to swing the 1876 presidential election towards its favored candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes. The election was the closest in U.S. history, and Western Union used its telegraph network monopoly and exclusive carriage contract with the Associated Press to ensure that only positive stories about Hayes made it on the wire. Hayes ultimately won by a hair. 

On average, Google adjusts its algorithm more than once a day. Epstein said it’s possible that even if the Alphabet triumvirate of Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt didn’t get directly involved in tipping the scales on an election, a rogue employee could tweak the code without the leaders’ knowledge. 

“Google could easily be flipping elections worldwide as you read this,” Epstein said. 

http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/20/technology/google-2016-election/index.html?iid=obnetwork
NESARA- Restore America – Galactic News



Source: http://nesaranews.blogspot.com/2015/08/by-manipulating-its-search-results.html

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.