Journalists are dismissing a recent report suggesting Google is using its algorithms to prevent President Donald Trump from winning reelection.
CNN commentator Brian Stelter and other pundits are sounding off on a Project Veritas report quoting an alleged Google insider who claims the company is pushing a political agenda. Reporters are now claiming that the report is likely a case of conservatives mixing up algorithm bias with political bias.
“So it seems to me that this ‘investigation’ about Google’s bias is really just a bunch of non technical ppl mixing up algorithmic bias w/ political bias. am i wrong? could one of you smart technologists who follow me explain?” Charlie Warzel, a writer at The New York Times, wrote in a tweet Monday.
“I mean obviously the video snippets from their ‘whistleblower’ are all completely contextless and thus not to be taken seriously,” he said in a follow-up tweet. “[B]ut the part about fairness and algos. [T]hat’s just them seeing the word bias and not understanding what it means, right?”
The alleged Google insider told PV founder James O’Keefe that the company is using an algorithm called Machine Learning Fairness, which appears to fairness based on a specific social agenda. Google has not yet responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about the validity of the report’s claims.
Other reporters appeared to make similar criticisms. “[W]atching fox, seeing the talk shows promote project veritas, i googled for a reliable news account about what’s going on… and… can’t really find one,” Stelter said in a tweet Tuesday responding to Warzel’s post.
One Washington Post reporter reminded his followers that O’Keefe has a history of employing shady journalistic practices.
“Let me remind you all what Project Veritas is, and what they do,” Tony Romm, a tech reporter at WaPo, tweeted Wednesday morning before linking to an article his colleagues wrote in 2017 discussing a sting operation PV reportedly used to discredit reporters.
PV’s report included an undercover video of veteran Google employee Jen Gennai, who told another person in the video that breaking up the company would hurt big tech’s ability to prevent the “next Trump situation.” She later explained in a Medium post that she was referring to ways Google could ding misinformation heading into the 2020 election.
Chris White on June 26, 2019
