Google

• Google Whistleblowers Detail Plot to Impact 2020 Election
• US Military: Google’s Work Benefits Chinese Military
• New Info Reveals Truth About Google Blacklists, Censorship Efforts

The latest episode of “The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer” explores the recent revelations of Google’s hidden power to influence American behavior and elections.

Full Transcript:

Hi, I’m Peter Schweizer, and this is the Drill Down, where we Drill Down on cronyism and corruption in the federal government.

President Trump made news recently when he tweeted that he would be watching Google very closely, after several whistleblowers came forward and claimed that the tech giant would be working to sway the 2020 election in favor of President Trump’s Democratic opponent, whomever that may be.[i]

These former Google employees are hardly the first to sound the alarm about the power Google and their ability to manipulate our behavior without anyone knowing about it.

Noted academic and Harvard PHD Robert Epstein, an avowed Democrat himself, testified before congress on his extensive research into Google’s ability to sway behavior, and elections.[ii]

Epstein testified that his research had documented evidence that Google had swayed as many as 2.6 million votes in the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. According to Epstein- Google did this through something he calls the Search Engine Manipulation Effect, or SEME, which can sway undecided voters by putting articles that favor one candidate more prominently in search results.

And, truly, Google’s power to singlehandedly sway an election through methods that would be virtually undetectable to the American public, election officials, or even law enforcement is quite troubling.
But while concerns over Google’s potential impact on our elections warrant serious inspection and discussion, new questions have recently arisen regarding equally troubling activity with not just an opposing political party, but an actual foreign threat.

Recently, tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel sparked outrage by some when he alleged cooperation between Google’s Artificial Intelligence branch and the Chinese military. And this was hardly the first time this concern has been raised.[iii]

Thiel’s comments echoed the concerns of Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who last year said that Google’s decision to work on artificial intelligence in China, while not renewing their contract with the Pentagon,  gave an indirect benefit to the Chinese military.[iv] 

In response, Trump asked Mnuchin to look into it.[v] His inquiry apparently consisted of Mnuchin speaking to Google CEO who assured the Treasury Secretary that Google’s work would not pose a security threat to United States.[vi]

Apparently, that was good enough for US officials.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time Google has run afoul of US law or privacy concerns, only to be let off the hook by the US government.

In 2013, Google was forced to admit that their Street View Project had violated numerous privacy laws when their Google Maps vehicles were caught capturing Wifi information and email passwords of innocent people in addition to pictures of street addresses.[vii] Google simple paid a small fine, and was told to better monitor the behavior of their own employees.

At least that time Google admitted, after numerous lawsuits, to their wrongdoing.

But they still deny other problems that mounting evidence suggest are all too real.

In July of 2019, Google representatives testified under oath before Congress that Google employees didn’t maintain Blacklists, or the names of censored users that would be hidden on the internet.[viii] But several batches of leaked documents, including some just released by former Google employees who have decided to come public, suggest that Google has in fact maintained blacklists of numerous users, specifically on their YouTube platform.[ix]

The truly scary thing about this form of manipulation is that it’s so difficult if not impossible to detect. After all, if you can’t see something, how would you know if it was even there in the first place?
Now if an oil company wanted to help a presidential campaign by donating free gas, they would run into all sorts of problems. They simple couldn’t donate 20 million dollars of free gas to a campaign that would violate federal election laws.[x]

But what makes Google’s power so troubling is if they wanted to help a presidential campaign by manipulating their algorithm, we would have no way of knowing.

Sadly, Google has proven repeatedly that, when it comes to insuring rules of privacy and fairness are adhered to, they have not earned the benefit of the doubt.

I’m Peter Schweizer, and this is the Drill Down. For more episodes, visit DrillDowntv.com, or follow us on social media.  

Sources:

1. Ben Popken, “Trump Accuses Google of ‘Rigged’ Search Results for News,” NBC News, August 28, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/trump-accuses-google-rigged-search-results-news-n904401.
2. American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, Robert Epstein, Ph.D., “Why Google Poses a Serious Threat to Democracy, and How to End that Threat,” Testimony Before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, June 16, 2019, https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Epstein%20Testimony.pdf.
3. Nicolas Vega, “Peter Thiel Calls for CIA, FBI Probe of Google over China Ties,” New York Post, July 15, 2019, https://nypost.com/2019/07/15/peter-thiel-calls-for-cia-fbi-probe-of-google-over-china-ties/.
4. Tyler Durden, “Gen. Dunford Slams Google’s ‘Inexplicable’ Deepened Ties with China as it Cuts Pentagon Projects,” Zero Hedge, December 7, 2018, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-07/gen-dunford-slams-googles-inexplicable-deepening-ties-china-it-cuts-pentagon.
5. Saleha Mohsin and David McLaughlin, “Mnuchin Urges Antitrust Probe of Tech After Google Report,” Bloomberg, May 21, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-21/mnuchin-urges-justice-to-review-tech-firms-for-antitrust-abuse.
6. Richard Nieva, “Google’s Work in China Doesn’t Raise Concerns, Says Treasury’s Mnuchin,” CNET, July 24, 2019, https://www.cnet.com/news/treasury-secretary-mnuchin-googles-work-in-china-doesnt-raise-concerns/.
7. Curt Hopkins, “Google Fined $7 Million for Street View Privacy Violations,” Daily Dot, last updated December 6, 2015, https://www.dailydot.com/news/google-street-view-privacy-violations-fines/.
8. Allum Bokhari, “Google VP Denies ‘Blacklists’ of Search Results After Leaks Showing Their Existence,” Breitbart, July 16, 2019, https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/07/16/google-vp-denies-blacklists-of-search-results-after-leaks-showing-their-existence/.
9. “Insider Blows Whistle & Exec Reveals Google Plan to Prevent ‘Trump Situation’ in 2020 on Hidden Cam,” Project Veritas, June 24, 2019, https://www.projectveritas.com/2019/06/24/insider-blows-whistle-exec-reveals-google-plan-to-prevent-trump-situation-in-2020-on-hidden-cam/.
10. Federal Election Commission, “Contribution Limits,” accessed August 9, 2019, https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/candidate-taking-receipts/contribution-limits/.