President Donald Trump has tweeted about Google. Picture: AP
President Donald Trump has tweeted about Google. Picture: AP

Google hits back at Trump’s bias claims

GLOBAL tech giant Google has hit back at US President Donald Trump's extravagant claims that the search engine rigs its results to show negative stories about him and his administration.

In a Twitter firestorm unleashed at 5:30am this morning local time (7.30pm AEST) Mr Trump wrote that almost all of the news stories he saw were "bad" and that "fake" news was prominent.

He accused Google of being behind this because it is biased against conservative media outlets and controls what the public "can and cannot see".



Google has responded to the outlandish claims, releasing a statement saying their algorithm is engineered to provide the most "relevant" answers without thought to political agenda.

"When users type queries into the Google search bar, our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds," the company wrote.



President Donald Trump has tweeted his accusations about Google. Picture: AP



The search engine said it issues hundreds of improvements to its algorithms each year to ensure searches always yield "high-quality content in response to users' queries."


Mr Trump's top economic adviser said the White House is "taking a look" at whether the government should regulate Google.

"We'll let you know," Larry Kudlow told reporters outside the White House when asked whether Mr Trump believes Google and its search engine should be regulated, The Washington Post reported. "We're taking a look at it."

The president also went on to suggest that he had somehow analysed the results on a search for the term "Trump News" and found that almost all of the stories that came upwere "left-wing".


Google's search results are based on an algorithm which has never been publicly released.

This is the first time Mr Trump has ever claimed Google's search engine is biased.




Google Headquarters in the US. Picture: Supplied
Google Headquarters in the US. Picture: Supplied


In March, Google announced it would spend more than $A408 million over the next three years to improve its search results following the rise of 'fake news'.

In July Mr Trump attacked the European Union's decision to fine Google $US 5.1 billion ($A6.85 billion) for "serious illegal behaviour".

The European Commission announced the record antitrust fine after an investigation found it had used illegal, anti-competitive behaviour in its smartphone software that had been designed to increase the search giant's dominance.


Google has said it would appeal the fine.