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Disputed

Google search bias: the contested Robert Epstein vote-shift estimates

Psychologist Robert Epstein has estimated that biased Google search results shifted millions of votes toward Hillary Clinton in 2016. On August 19, 2019, President Trump cited the work, saying Google 'manipulated' 2.6 million to 16 million votes. Google called the claim debunked, and outside experts questioned the methods.

Aug 19, 2019
Whose side it served: Republicans

The vote-shift estimates were used by Trump and Republicans to argue that Google favored Democrats.

What the record shows

Business Insider reported that Epstein's 2017 study estimated at least 2.6 million votes shifted to Clinton; in Senate testimony he gave a range of 2.6 to 10.4 million. The 2017 study was based on 95 participants in 24 states, and results from Gmail users were dropped without saying how many remained. The 2015 work it built on asked U.S. residents to cast hypothetical votes in Australia's 2010 election. Experts questioned whether the findings transfer to U.S. elections and how 'bias' was defined; it could reflect the news landscape rather than Google. It was unclear where Trump's 16 million figure came from.

In their words

“This researcher's inaccurate claim has been debunked since it was made in 2016.”— Google statement · source
The other side

Epstein argues that search ranking can shift undecided voters in ways they do not notice, and that subtle effects matter in close elections; critics' objections concern the size of his estimates and his methods.

Sources

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