Google Accused of Favouring Kamala Harris Over Donald Trump in Search Results, Study Finds

Google is facing accusations of favouring Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris over her Republican rival, Donald Trump, in its search results, according to a recent study by the Media Research Centre (MRC).

The conservative watchdog group claims that Google placed Harris’ campaign website in a more prominent position while pushing Trump’s site lower and surrounding it with content perceived as having a “leftist bias.”

The MRC Free Speech America study analysed the search results for two specific queries: “Donald Trump presidential race 2024″ and “Kamala Harris presidential race 2024.”

Researchers found that Harris’ campaign website appeared third in the search results, just below articles from left-leaning outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico, which are reportedly favourable to Harris.

In contrast, Trump’s campaign site appeared in the sixth position, beneath critical articles about the former president, with no representation from conservative outlets such as the ‘New York Post’.

“Google’s search engine pushes left-wing media articles favouring Kamala Harris and slamming Donald Trump. Don’t trust Google searches,” the MRC concluded in its report.

The findings have further fuelled criticism of Google’s alleged left-leaning bias. The tech giant is already scrutinised for reportedly skewing search results related to Trump’s candidacy. Last month, Google faced backlash for allegedly omitting an assassination attempt on Trump from its AutoCorrect function.

Gabriela Pariseau, associate editor at MRC Free Speech America, claimed that Google is padding its search results with “leftist legacy news articles,” often hostile toward Republican candidates. “In the past, Google buried the campaign websites of Republican candidates.

Searches for Trump on Google yield news articles from outlets that tend to favour Harris, according to the Media Research Center. AP

Now the search giant pads its search results about political candidates with leftist legacy news articles, many of which are hostile to Republicans and either neutral or favourable toward Democrats,” Parizeau stated.

Tim Graham, executive editor of MRC NewsBusters, echoed similar concerns. He pointed out that search results predominantly featured links to left-leaning outlets like CNN and NBC, which he described as having a “blatant leftist bias.”

An independent analysis by *The Post* on Thursday showed a similar trend. Trump’s campaign website appeared near the bottom of the first search page, categorised under “Sponsored Posts,” followed by articles from left-leaning sources. Harris’ website, meanwhile, ranked higher on the page, although not as prominently as indicated in the MRC study, with content from *The New York Times*, CNN, and NBC occupying the top spots.

Pariseau noted that much of the content appearing ahead of Harris’ site in search results related to historian Allan Lichtman’s prediction that Harris would win the 2024 election. “This overt leftist bias is especially concerning,” Pariseau added, pointing to a November 2023 Pew Research survey, which found that more Americans are relying on search engines for news.

Media Research Center accused Google of “trying to stack the deck” in favour of Harris. DAVID MUSE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

According to the survey, 15% of U.S. adults prefer getting their news from search engines, up from 13% in 2022 and 11% in 2021. Pariseau emphasised the importance of search result rankings, citing a 2023 study by Search Engine Optimization expert Brian Dean, which found that sixth results typically receive less than half the click-throughs compared to those ranked third.

“This comes after a previous MRC Free Speech America study that prompted Google with searches about Kamala Harris and found that Google favoured leftist media outlets at a ratio of 17:2 in Google Search and 19:2 in the Google News tab,” Pariseau said.

A spokesperson from Google dismissed the MRC study, stating that both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of search results for relevant queries. “This report looked at a single rare search term on a single day several weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates’ websites ranked in the top results on Google,” the spokesperson told ‘Fox News Digital’.

*The Post* has reached out to Google for additional comment.