There are demands for censorship, and to close accounts including Trump's. However unlikely those things are, they would be what Trump claims is already happening (it's not, not yet anyway).
We should talk about the importance of not letting censorship get started, of not letting even obnoxious voices be shut down.
There are worse things than Trump, and we'd get there with censorship and exclusion.
5
Idiots are as idiots do.
trump would never have gained the Oval Office if it weren't for social media. Slowly and grudgingly social media seems to be trying to clean itself up. And a more vigilant social media that works to keep liars and hucksters out is definitely bad for our whining, sniveling, Crybaby In Chief.
4
Even for the New York Times this piece is ABSURD!
I tried googling numerous things concerning Trump, the cile vile attacks by the likes of the New York Times, and Republican issues in general.
In most results, only left wing sources appeared in the fist two pages of results. Foxnews.com, Breitbard.com, and other less left-wing sources often did not appear at all.
If you do not agree that google is biased toward left and far left media, you are LYING.
Here are some results from some random Google Trump based searches ranked in order of responses returned. That simply reflects what is out there in the web. Trump functions under the impression that he can impose his psychopathic will on those he can subjugate. That is his 'genius' - which incidentally comes out at the bottom of this list . . .
Trump Lies returns: About 656,000,000 results (0.36 seconds)
Stop Trump returns: About 629,000,000 results (0.43 seconds)
Trump racist returns: About 173,000,000 results (0.43 seconds)
Trump Idiot returns: About 111,000,000 results (0.36 seconds
Trump Liar returns: About 41,100,000 results (0.40 seconds)
Trump Insane returns: About 37,900,000 results (0.48 seconds)
Impeach Trump returns: About 34,600,000 results (0.55 seconds)
Trump Traitor returns: About 17,000,000 results (0.57 seconds)
Trump Moron returns: About 11,900,000 results (0.37 seconds)
Trump Whining returns: About 5,490,000 results (0.43 seconds)
Trump Stable Genius returns: About 2,220,000 results (0.52 seconds)
2
Trump'd latest tweet:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1034907478566359041
Since Trump tweets and retweets vile lies and stupidities with digestive tract regularity, how is the NYT still so obsessed with his stinky output rather than strictly reporting on what his administration is actually doing, day after day, to our beautiful world? The awesome power of the US born of the backbreaking work of generations is currently being abused and devalued in a hundred and one different ways by being covered up in a hundred and whatever number of characters that, however you cut it, slice it or discuss it, inevitably add up to nothing but utter nonsense.
4
Meanwhile State TV - Fox News - rambles on in non-factual hagiography
2
This man is mentally ill. Listening to his mad tirades and unhinged "theories" is tiring, so I tune it out. But a bunch of folks wanted him for President, so now instead of doing productive things as a nation, we sputter around in circles trying to make sense of the ravings of the toddler-king.
3
Donald Trump.
Not getting enough nice attention.
What a sad, silly man he is.
2
I would be in hog heaven if I could google 'Today's News' and Trump's name didn't come up once in 24 hours. What in the world causes him to think that his name is on the tip-of-tongue of everyone every second of the day and it has been that way since the star shown over the village of Bethlehem?
Here is news for Trump: people like me don't care what you think. We care about what you do and what you do is un-evolve humanity. I personally consider you, Mr. Trump, the human equivalent of Agent Orange. Google it if you believe it will be all about your narcissus-self. In this one circumstance, I believe YOU should be the first option to pop-up. After all it's probably an unknown term to draft-doggier such as yourself.
I'm 4 years younger than Trump. I know that the algorithm of what I search and what sites I visit are what lead to the google response when I ask for something. For example: I type 'Corn' and I get 301,000,000 sites listed that I might be interested in and the first 25-30 pages of suggestion are under the headings of : History, Medical, Nutritive Values, and Recipes. I am pretty sure I would have start at the backend in order to find a page about you, Mr. Trump, spewing more 'Corn'-y feed all over the internet.
I don't visit sites that adore you, Trump. That's my intention. I know exactly enough about you that I don't need nor want to know anything more. You're an idiotic jerk and associate with other idiotic jerks. Enough said.
1
Trump's got it easy. Google Santorum.
This is typical Trump behavior- add confusion at every turn. Just like everything else, up is down, down is up, what a (fill in the blank)
“ “ show.
Ya know, even if more people than not do want him to be our president- just like a Hitler - this stuff happens. And it happens to good people.
Keep your eyes wide open - Trump has fascist style and our country just may end with him- for quite awhile. Very and frightening. History repeats! I hope my fellow Americans see what’s really going on - destructive discourse BUT really all about money and power that gets people like Trump off. And some people admire it. It’s really very sad.
1
Saw Kara Swisher on Bill Maher last week, she is brilliant and funny. The more of her writing the better.
Little Baby Donnie, he got his feelings hurt.
If you don't bow down to him his tears begin to squirt.
Little Baby Donnie, says 2+2 is 3
Google says the sum is 4, they're biased don't you see?
Trump is so far gone from actual reality that if he took a test in school and the teacher marked some of his answers wrong, he would seek revenge on the honest instructor and insist his lack of knowledge was a lie made up by the teacher.
The GOP and the Trump base are in Jim Jones territory now. The Kool Ade they drink destroys all morality and intellectual ability. It's a cruel, nasty, self obsessed beverage laced with deadly nightshade, producing paranoid hallucinations of demons and enemies out to "get" the the only "real" Americans, those in the lily white Kool Ade Club.
If only all the voters had Kara's brains and humor!
2
Does this big baby ever stop whining?
2
Reality is a liberal plot. The truth is for haters.
I think Trump is onto something. I googled Hitler, and almost everything it pulled up for him was negative also.
6
Make America great again: Dump Trump/Pence.
I have a little ditty I sing to myself - (I an old retired guy) - that goes like this "What has the idiot done today." You supply the tune. But now I know I can just check "Trump News" on Google and get more updates. Love it and with out trump I would have thought of it.
1
Right! More nonsense Ms. Swisher. They preach about subconscious bias but are the most flagrant practitioners of it...
Thank you for a great article. As conservative as I am, this president has been a systematic embarrassment.
J. S. Fargason
[email protected]
1
“The laddy doth protest too much, methinks”
2
Mr. Trump and his followers have gone off the deep end once again. When Google gives search results that link up to reputable news organizations that tell the truth, that is called "Responsible Stewardship of their Resource".
I for one believe that conservative outlets such as Infowars, which pushes such lies as "The Sandy Hook massacre of children never happened", should never be in a search result for Trump News.
For all his whining against Google, Trump and his followers can stop using Google and go directly to any website they choose. Google doesn't stop them one bit. Google is just refusing to give links to websites which are known to lie and pander to hatred.
I never use Google to find websites such as the www.nytimes.com and the www.washingtonpost.com. I type those websites URL directly and find the news I am looking for. Trump and his followers can do exactly the same to access their "favorite" websites. They should vote with their keyboard and stop whining like babies.
3
There is no independent media in Russia or China.
Why should it even exist in this fascist-governed war state?
Who cares?
You have to stop covering the imbecile in the White House. Every day he makes false statements, distractions designed to get publicity.
Trump is a Frankenstein monster created by the media, a monster fed by free publicity, generated by outrageous statements aimed at the news cycle every day.
Everyone knows you cannot regulate information under the First Amendment. The claim to do so is the statement of an imbecile seeking free publicity.
Stop providing the free publicity and the Frankenstein monster will go away. Stop repeating the statements of an imbecile.
2
Everyone with half a brain knows the guy's a clod - including Trump himself. That's his problem. Down deep he's one scared cookie.
3
This is basically Trump setting himself up to be a dictator in chief and set the stage for him to censor, not just electronic platforms, but media itself. By arguing that Google and Facebook (private entities) are 'suppressing' conservative voices, he can make the pitch that the government has the right to demand, somehow "fair access" for "conservative voices". I have heard Trump nation idiots try to equivocate this to the media, but the irony is that the Republicans under the Reagan administration FCC dropped the 'fair use" laws, that required broadcasters to allow for 'both sides' politically (they figured they would end up with a conservative hegonomy on tv, but more importantly, allowed the rise of 'conservative news media" that led to Fox News.
Yes, Trump is playing to his base, he is playing to the notion that he and 'conservatives' (sorry, his base are not conservatives, they are wack job alt right morons who couldn't put together a cohesive argument if they wanted to). The kind of people they are talking about aren't people espousing conservative economic or social positions, it is people like Alex Jones, the birthers, the Milo whatever his name is alt right, the Klanners, anti Mexican racists and the like, they are people who don't argue a position, they spew out conspiracies and not even thinly veiled attacks on groups of people, literally hate, and Google and Facebook and Twitter ban them for violating their terms of service, which they do with all kinds.
2
The GOP and the Fox News establishment live by this motto:
"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion." Joseph Goebbels
Register and VOTE in November as if our country depends on it....because it does.
1
Hey, Trump: If everyone tells you you're drunk you should probably fall down....
What you discovered on the internet is that everyone is telling you that you are a childish, pathologically disordered, corrupt, disgraceful, embarrassing, incompetent and an illegitimate president. The fact that most people hate who you are is not a conspiracy by tech companies. It's the truth.
While you're at it, you're supposed to be running a country not Googling yourself and Tweeting every 5 minutes....
3
A very simple fix – something these folks do to others all the time...
They cache versions of web-pages – even when an original is deleted or revised...
Just get them to cache their instantiations of their search algorithms once per day...
And save those for a year before discarding...
Don’t have to save the data – just the search scoping and ranking criteria...
Said another way – if they’re the next phone company, they can mess with their Yellow Pages however they want...
White Pages need to stay alphabetical – and free – and include everyone who doesn’t request otherwise...
The shining star in this world, actually – the NYT capsule...
Am dead serious...
NYT continually trying to rewrite our future...
But their integrity in archiving their past – almost beyond reproach...
The very few times they’d obfuscated something – lit up Google search pages within a couple of hours...
Apparently, that’s history...
Oh the big bad wolf is going to huff and puff and run out of air before he can blow my house down. Google and Twitter are supporting him. Especially Twitter. He is a twit, a goog, and idoit.
2
I think it's a stretch to say that our Idiot in Chief has somehow made the tech giants sympathetic. This a squabble between highly malignant antagonists and in a best-case scenario, they'd all lose.
get the big picture folks ... Trump loves the negative coverage. the truth is that people don't rrally want to read positive news so the more negative and hateful Trump is the more attention he gets. then when that isn't enough he blames orhers for his self generated negative coverage and gets himself even more attention. this country was totally unprepared for a megolomaniac narcissist with a megahorn.
1
Donny, sorry you are having trouble finding what you want.
A helpful tip from the internet for seniors course at the library is to consider your “keyword” search terms.
Instead of “US Leader” try “ US Moron”
3
Even cowardly rats will attack when they feel cornered.
the Twitter In Chief who trolls nonstop when he's not Golfing or Googlinghas zero o credibility.
1
What a complete fool. People in droves simply despise him in numbers far greater than his cultish fools. Numbers do not lie, he does.
2
Kara Swisher should read the NYT!
Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture
SAN FRANCISCO — The post went up quietly on Facebook’s internal message board last week. Titled “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,” it quickl…
The New York Times · 7h
1
Poor demented man, tilting at windmills!
2
Trump is just another troglodyte who can't fathom that not everyone else behaves the way he does.
1
Great piece.
One small edit: it's "PageRank" or "Page rank".
It's less about ranked pages, more about an algorithm being named after Larry Page, it's creator and yes, having to do with how search results are ranked.
Please Mother Melania, your petulant man-child in the White House is acting up again, and desperately needs a hug!
Tell it sister. Trash that Trump.
1
Idiots are as idiots do.
If reporting the truth is an anti-trump agenda then so be it. I prefer the truth and I trust the New York Times, PBS Newshour, CNN, MSNBC, and a treasure trove of responsible news outlets to report the truth far more than I trust trump's Lying Channel (foxnews).
1
Trump is, and has been for quite a while, building his "get out of jail" strategy by trying to discredit everything but TrumpTV (Fox/NewsMax/Hannity/Carlson, etc.).
His "POOR ME" ploy to his ignorant base - yes IGNORANT if you believe this lying crook - and "everything is fake news except what I say isn't" propaganda wouldn't be believed by a fourth grader more than once - and he has done it THOUSANDS of times.
STUPID, we are not. BLIND, we are not. DEAF, we are not and CRIMINAL we are not. Trump can scream, yell, rant, rave, lie, cheat on his wife, fake trade agreements, fake peace agreements and eat animal waste, but we will still not give in to his criminal activities, nor will we give him any quarter. He deserves neither compassion nor sympathy, wiggle room nor forgiveness. HE IS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and I, as one of hundreds of millions, will put him behind bars where he belongs. Enough of this venal moron. Let's get on with the best of America, not the worst.
2
Of course...president snowflake is upset that the mainstream media and the biggest internet providers aren't treating him like a god-king. Boo-hoo.
Here's a clue...corporations want to keep all of their customers if they can. That means they can't just lie 24/365 like Trump and get away with it. And if they don't call out Trump and his supporters who misuse their technology, there will be a big price to pay. Facebook, Google, even Amazon all realize this. Their marketplace is the world. Fox fake news only needs to sell their propaganda in the USA.
Facebook and Google and Twitter need to filter out the Russian bots and right wing cranks. Too bad if Trump and his base don't like the truth, but there it is. And if your little snowflakes are melting, don't expect me to turn on the air conditioning.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
1
Great article. But if Ms. Swisher intended to refer to a Mao Tse Tung quote, it's' "let a hundred flowers bloom..." not a thousand.
We all know that the Liar in Chief is a ...Liar! The hypocrisy I see is the Repubs calling for stricter immigration because of the undocumented Mexican who seems to have mental health issues who killed Mollie Tibbets yet we don't hear the Repubs coming down on the NRA and the laws that allow a home-grown guy who has mental health issues to obtain a gun and kill fellow gamers....Why the silence for the latter?
1
This demonstrates how IGNORANT is 45th.
1
Kara I have no idea why you think you are qualified to even opine on this topic but your "article" is laughable at best, sad at worst. That social media is censoring right-of-center views in favor of socialialist propaganda is so patently obvious it needs no further support. I wonder whether you are blind or dishonest; I suspect the latter. b
1
The moron evermore shows his ignorance more and more everyday. His handlers must have long reached their breaking point. The only followers that he has is his equally misinformed trumpettes.
1
That was your hest column ever Kara except you are kind of dissing journalism by saing it is only Fortnite and Med apps that matter any more! Lol
Trump’s ignorance and egomania, a vile combination, prevent him from anything approaching an honest assessment of why there are so many negative stories about him and his presidency. Trump said, “I love the poorly educated” and he was certainly talking, first and foremost, to and about himself. Trump thus also lacks any discernible degree of insight and empathy. So, whatever confluence of events urges Trump to again whine (yes, Bill Maher, you are right) about how he is not being treated fairly, you can be sure that it was precisely that, an urge, an action taken without much, if any, deliberation or consideration of relevant facts. These are dangerous times when a person like this occupies the WH, or any position of power. The 2018 and 2020 elections cannot come soon enough!
2
I'd like to see the statistics of how many left wing accounts were completely turned off by Google, Facebook and YouTube versus conservative voices. OH Yeah - NONE! If you are going to call it codswallop, then you better be able to back it up. Freedom of Speech means just that. The stuff you like AND the stuff you don't like. Too bad technies don't get that. What exactly is hate speech? Who decides what it is and isn't. That's called CENSORSHIP! Get a dictionary and read the Constitution!
1
Opinion Kingdom Swisher gets special protection from online censors? Fourth time and counting:
So Swisher reads code, does she? Seen the group-think gulag from the inside, has she? Spent a lot of time reading about the politics of Lenin's Bay Area, too, including Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress, right?
1
Trump. Will. Be. Addressed. Is Being.
While you're here, remember Acid Rain.
Kara, love your voice and perspective. Refreshing and on point.
This is just the modern version of the same play the right-wing has been using for decades. Smear and label every source of information that might be critical of you as liberal, biased, unfair, fake, etc.
Of course your true believers will agree, but the really beautiful part is that it actually makes some of the targets modify their coverage and approach in a misguided effort to avoid this criticism. This is how we get false equivalencies, "both-siderism," and the mindset that the media should present facts and "beliefs" as equally worthy of respect.
It's worked great so far, so why would they change?
110
@Pat because those who fail to learn to stand together against trump are enabling him to destroy everything we love about life and this world and this country.
1
@Pat this is the best comment.
1
Please! This is too obvious. Trump's go to tactic is to accuse others of what he himself has done. Simple. Sad.
He's upset because John McCain is getting more air time than he is this week. Hmmm, what can I do next to get the attention back on ME!
2
Hmmm.
Why would an intelligently written column refuting a "patently false" idea omit any facts or data about the idea in question?
1
At this point, who DOESN't he attack? Let's see. He doesn't attack police officers who shoot unarmed people, Walmart, polluters, the pornography industry, Vladimir Putin, doctors who defraud Medicaid and Medicare, health insurance companies... In short, it's more telling who he doesn't attack than who he does.
The news feeds are Liberal biased, there is no doubt, and it has gotten much worst. The Leftists can't see it as the old saying goes, when you're standing in the woods......Ms. Swisher logs onto the Google news fed and finds all the stories that interest her listed at the top. Us Conservatives have to dig, and dig, and dig.
The biggest joke was when Zuckerberg proclaimed to Congress, "we do not sell user data".
LOL. If it's free, that means you are for sale.
1
This guy knows nothing about computers. And little about anything else.
Go to Google search. Type in, "negative news about Trump" and you get 114,000,000 results. Clear that search and type in, "positive news about Trump" and you get 160,000,000 results. I'm hoping Giuliani will have one of his concise and articulate explanations for this on tonight's evening news.
2
"tech leaders are more often lightweight versions of libertarians and largely apolitical except for backing gay and transgender rights"
Are you sure? Zuckerberg stated that Silicon Valley is quite a liberal place.
I thought this was ludicrous as well. Then I went to google and searched on a few items reported in the NYTimes and my local paper. Sadly, Trump is more than correct on this one; google is biased for sure. Don't know about twitter, refuse to engage with such nonsense as twitter.
I suspect Nixon would have been nearly as bad as Trump in terms of paranoia if he were president today, but Trump certainly takes the prize for mental abnormalities, in my opinion. I admit to not being a psychiatric professional, BUT, even I can see narcissism, secretiveness, insecurity, paranoia, and inability to think clearly and rationally in this president, to name just a few symptoms. He is also a racist, a misogynist, a liar, a man who threatens his perceived enemies, and a general fear-monger. He panders to the "Christian"
religious right, without any belief. He demands NDAs from his political appointees, even though they are not enforceable for government employees. I'm not sure what good qualities he does have.
There MUST be a check on this man, and the current leaderless Congress will not do it. However, there is one check which is within our power: the ballot box.
Be sure you are STILL registered to vote. Then donate, volunteer, and VOTE Democratic to take back the House, at least.
1
Trump spouts nonsense about how unfair Google is to him because he knows his audience is too lazy to do their own research. They take what he says at face value. According to Trump we can't trust anyone other than Fox news or him. Everything else is fake news.
Trump may not be able to control Google or the main stream media but he doesn't really need to. All he needs to do to win is convince people that the tools that have allowed the back and forth flow of information are no longer trustworthy. There's a reason why dictators go after the media and stifle the internet to control the information their people are able to access. An uninformed populace is much easier to control.
Sadly the tech industry has only themselves to blame for our susceptibility to Trump's nonsense. They've profited from our information without protecting our rights. There's just enough truth in what Trump is claiming for his words to ring true.
K, but we need to keep repeating these facts daily because his followers seem to believe whatever they are told repeatedly. Not a slam, just a scary observation. Regulating search engines and access to information would be a former KGB-agent’s dream come true.
1
Not only is big tech a a poor fit for the term "liberal", the news industry is in many respect a worse fit. A vast majority of the largest newspapers, TV and radio stations are owned by large corporations that have a vested interest in preserving the status quo, the very definition of "conservative". They all want reduced regulation and taxes just like big tech, unless of course the regulations help them suppress competitors. To claim that the "media is liberal" is nothing more than propaganda.
I mean, one of Google's senior employees got caught trying to distribute his pseudoscientific manifesto at work and claimed to receive extensive support for it. Additionally, tech companies are predominantly staffed by straight, white, well-off men, which is Trump's base.
This is just another example in an endless litany of conservative victim complexes.
Trump synchronized his timely political attack with Peter Thiel's Facebook Libertarian millionaires. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that some of those Social Media right-wing pills-elites, such as James Damore, all secretly well-funded, supported the Russia-captivated Trump with their technological "expertise", while they all got criminally richer than Richie Rich on the divisive STASI/military-PysOps propaganda fake news-profits raining in on them.
Mmmm. the big business of Divide,Conquer & Build yo-fascist-empire that our religious fundamental mental mentally ill billionaire Gamer-Gates-Trolls and Bots-running wannabe Q's enjoy to play with Democracy.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-pernicious-science-of-james-damores-goog...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/technology/inside-facebook-employees-...
Amuse me some more, dear Thiel-boys. Because cognitive superior gender you might be only if you are compared to the most-common primitive Ape, or even with Amoebas armed with relativistic Coding-know-hows.
Best,
A.E.
Projectheureka LLC;
@Projectheureka LLC
Versus daily Sovietized ad nauseam hate-Trump propaganda broadcasting from New York City's mass-media central, cultural Marxist corporate and "reporters" ABC, CBS et al., not to mention Lenin's Bay Area Google et al.?
1
You always need an enemy...a war on something going on somewhere...frogmen...underwater demolition...porn stars...tall buildings...Zsa Zsa Gabor...black mambas...scrambled eggs and ketchup...hair hats...strange fruit...hanging from Southern trees...blood on the leaves...at the root of it all...
1
Wow, no bias here. I realize this is an opinion article, but the vitriol spewed here is instructive. Just subscribed to NYT and Kara, you are not what I would call a reasoned debater. Although I guess you get paid for it...
Yes. It’s OPINION.
"No one tells a lie after he has announced publicly he is going to tell one" is in itself an old lie pathological liars tell.
// “We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views,” Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook engineer, wrote in the post, which was obtained by The New York Times. “We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.”//
That's one fascinating Stalin/Hitler's Gleich-Geschaltungs-based reverse-psychology by our religious fundamental/ Libertarian Tech "Geniuses" for Don Trump, as Brian Amerige.
Those who are the most callous discriminating, racist, misogynistic homophobic white supremacist religious extreme nationalists, wealthy violent hate-crimes via Facebook's Russian-and Islamic oligarchs well-funded fake news-inducing American-Nazis, are accusing everyone else of "monoculture and intolerance, and mob attack-opposition".
These modern snakes-oil-selling richest Fascists and sick elite Nazis so full of themselves are such preciously perfect guinea pigs. For Cognitive Science.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-pernicious-science-of-james-damores-goog...
Best,
A.E.
Projectheureka LLC;
2
Trump is trying to distract public attention from the ceremonies celebrating the life of John McCain. It's working. All of his silly nonsense is sucking up all the media coverage.
2
You know what's ludicrouser? Validating every twitburst with an op-ed.
The troll's thinking goes like this: If she took all that time to rebut what I wrote, I must be on to something!
When they're not even wrong (h/t Wolfgang Pauli), label them as such and then move on.
1
@Lorem Ipsum: Lies need to be countered with truth - every time. So yes I agree that trump tweeting should be ignored, and most of us do ignore them, but it's the news organizations that are tasked with reporting the truth. trump lies, PBS Newshour tells us the truth.
My numeriques of today: 1) I like the writer’s speedy style and sharp tone. 2) I’m not a fan of Mr. Trump. 3) I’m not bold enough to challenge NYT. *** If I try to pursue #3 to be positive, I *might* at least need #2 to be positive for my security or comfort (maybe?). So, impossible is the answer. *** Some development: The entity X is found to be all bad and overall with no doubt, which is clear in a transparent way. The other entity Anti-X is found to be bad enough, but not as entirely as X is. Nevertheless, the badness of Anti-X may be worse in a way that transparencies in the badness are lacking. *** Conclusion: Neutral to be if possible (... I mean.. just occasionally).
A donkey braying and defecating in the Oval Office would be an improvement.
4
Kara Swisher is one of those know-it-alls who doesn't really know it all. Liberals do dominate heavily in Silicon Valley. And I have never heard the term "innoventor".
Yes, Donald Trump's "attack" on Google and Twitter is self-serving hyperbole. But what else is new? His point is well-taken. Nationwide, social justice warriors dominate the news media and have outsized influence on big companies, particularly tech companies. The San Francisco Bay Area is just the most vivid example.
It's always been bad here for conservatives. It's getting worse. Ranters like Kara Swisher don't help any.
1
@John Smithson:
Kara Swisher is doing a big public service here by telling the truth against trump's lies. I say write on, Kara, write on!
There is a saying, "If you want to have self esteem, do esteem-able things."
If Trump wants to see favorable news coverage, he has to begin acting in a positive, constructive manner.
5
It would be a worthwhile experiment to ban trumpie from Twitter, even if only for a month.
3
John Kelley should write up Little Donnie for abuse of internet privileges while in the office. Like I do when one of my employees is on the web all day.
Doesn't this guy have any work to do?
4
The fact that he has us actually arguing this absurd premise means that his objective has been achieved- again.
Trump's purpose (and, it seems, that of his masters') from the beginning has been to sow dissent and confusion, turning us against one another and fraying the fabric of community- thus weakening our country as a whole.
But, even as we see what he is doing, we seem in a cleft stick: we can't ignore him; he's the President, and in that role his behavior is, daily, so bizarre that we must give him our attention, if only because we can't believe what we're seeing.
So, it seems that we must continue, responding seriously to surrealistic allegations tweeted at God o'clock in the morning, when his fevered mind requires venting, and as we do so, our sense of what is real becomes fuzzier, our belief in objective truth more difficult to maintain.
Where this will all end, God knows. The patients have taken over the asylum, and we can only watch in horrid fascination as they break the windows and set fires in the rooms, until we can re-enter to undo the damage and restore order. Speed the day.
1
Trump: "Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. .... Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out."
Fox News was one of the top ones when I tried it.
Then there was that weird one where he complains that Google didn't include a live link to his State of the Union address, even though it did.
Alternative Facts. What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. Truth isn't truth!
It is ludicrous -- but it is also harmful and dangerous.
2
A very well written and amusing piece. And right on point.
1
This is an example of why Democratic Socialism is a bad idea. It concentrates/enhances government control over private businesses. Guess who controls the federal government and most state houses?
1
The Progressives who were so very interested in investigating Facebook for being pro Trump are now so opposed to inquiry about Google and Twitter.
Facebook is now declining any boost of posts they deem too political unless the poster registers as the equivalent of a Facebook lobbyist. The registration simply gives Facebook more personal information of the poster.
It's hard to discern which side of the political spectrum is really interested in free speech. I do realize that social media has taken control of the messaging by enabling people to by-pass the main stream media of the past. Even though main stream media is sorely aware of the criticism, they are obviously able to exercise their first amendment rights to the hilt.
3
Google News is practically indistinguishable from CNN's own website, they share so many stories.
Meanwhile, the unbiased writing on National Review and similar professionally managed sites is almost impossible to find in the first several pages of search results at Google.
The differences in how the parties are treated is laughable.
Google ''violent political groups'' or State of the Union speeches by the different parties' presidents to see more of this. The violence-causing So. Poverty Law Center seems to own Google - unless you're curious about all the millions they have stashed overseas.
Do I see Google/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram ever being able to see what they are doing to the country with all this bias? Of course not.
Were I a devious corporate titan in charge of one of these and wanted to see the company go broke for lack of people having money to spend, however, what they are doing is exactly the fastest way to get there.
Bring in socialism and millions will suffer soon enough, with the rest of the people to follow.
2
I just googled “Trump” and Fox new was right at the top. Trump is a terrible spokesperson for the Republican Party; that’s not the tech businesses fault. He’s an easy target because he routinely lies, says disgusting things, and opens his stupid vile mouth. If he kept his mouth shut and grew some skin he would be fine. But he punches down and it makes him look week. Trump is a criminal, he has a criminal past, if he didn’t attack the FBI all of that may have been overlooked for the good of the country, but he had to fire Comey and he can’t keep his mouth shut. He’s just so incredibly uncool. We had the coolest, funniest president ever, with Barack. Trump could be great for republicans but he’s just so incredibly tired lame (and a criminal). But mostly tired and lame.
Trump: I say 1 1 = 5. Fake news says it is 4. Google conspires against me and Colludes with the Elites to say it’s 4. Rigged!!!
1
If people have not figured out that our President, (and I still can't believe it) is a fraud devoid of any sense of responsibility.
He will sat anything to look like "A John Wayne" type for his, sorry to say, dim base. What else can you call his followers who think they are the true Americans. And everyone else traitors.
How Trump wishes he was Mussolini so he can shut down all the Media except Fox News.
2
Although Ms. Swisher is certainly factually correct, she entirely misses the point of President Trump's campaign against social media. Trump isn't trying to obtain true fairness from social media, he's trying to redefine "fairness" to mean "favorable to Trump" - just as he casts more traditional media as "fake news" unless they adopt the servile posture taken toward him by approved outlets like Fox and Breitbart.
Those who have studied fascism will tell you that the first thing the successful fascist does is to redefine truth. To the fascist, truth is not a conclusion reached by objective reasoning from observable or verifiable evidence; truth is the position that furthers the interests of the fascist party or the fascist state.
Trump wants nothing less than the end of independent news and commentary. He's pursuing that goal by seeking to discredit fair-minded news outlets, inciting the mob that is his base to violence against "the enemy of the people," like the German mobs that rioted against Jews on Kristallnacht.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
5
PREZ TRUMP IS GREAT!!! There. I hope I swayed the statistics for today. Now Agent Orange can focus on why no cars are named after him.
2
The social media age is still in its infancy, raucous, dirty, and smelly. Wait till it gets to the terrible twos! Stalin found ways to silence people. Mussolini had his thugs and his ways of shutting people up.
In 1922, Mussolini’s Blackshirts marched on Rome, and the takeover of Italian civic life was underway. In 1929, the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty with Mussolini. In 1917, Lenin called for the elimination of the kulaks. In 1929, Stalin launched his drive to eliminate that class, and in conjunction with that, engineered famine in Ukraine. In all, some 11 million peasants perished. In Germany, Hitler came to power in 1933. Yet here and now, the free market has laid us bare to any electronic invader who wants to cause havoc, while our deplorable attitude to education and actual thinking presents the masses as easy prey. Let’s not just laugh off the antics of Trump: he has an army of backers, and his Gray Eminence, Bannon, tours Europe laying the groundwork for a right-wing international ruled by Trump.
2
Trumpian logic:
Everybody I know say’s he’s a stable genius.
This negative news must be fake.
Therefore it must be a liberal conspiracy.
QED.
The broken Republican Party plain and simple armed a lunatic; he's damaged mentally. This endless parade of conceptualizing that he actually could actually control himself...
He's ill, we're getting sick of the theater, and serious danger it puts the world in each week he remains, the tail wagging the dog... lol
2
The travesty of this who Trump "thing" is that as Donald Trump the private crook we can shut him off and ignore him, but as Donald Trump the illegitimate fakePresident every time he emits gas from either end we must hear his lies, and some people are stupid enough to believe them.
The power of the Bully Pulpit is great, but evidently the ability of many Americans to distinguish truth from deviant fiction is lacking.
Since Trump cannot read, cannot comprehend higher thought and has no moral or ethical compass, his "senior staff" at Fox seem to give him most of his blithering points - like this one about Google and the recent one about white slaughter in S Africa.
Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham must stay up all night laughing as they invent their latest lies for Trump to Tweet. He is sooooo stupid and gullible. It will take us a long time to teach our children civility and truth following the jailing of Trump, but we owe it to them - or at least the "liberals" do.
2
Tit for tat. Tech takes down Russian-fake American Trump supporters websites. Trump says tech doesn’t “support” (=lie for) Trump. Petty lying dictator.
3
Trump is jealous of the attention McCain is getting. Maybe someone should suggest to him how many accolades Donnie would get if he died.
2
Trump's profound ignorance is matched only by that of his hard-core supporters. You can change the algorithms all you want but the negatives are always going to show up in abundance. I have no doubt there's plenty to criticize about Google, I have plenty of my own, but I haven't found another search engine to produce as good a variety of returns as they do. Bing keeps trying but never gets me the good, the bad and the ugly like Google does.
2
For someone who reports on tech, Ms. Swisher shows a singular lack of understanding of how Facebook, Google, Twitter et. al. operate. I would suggest she needs to get a quick education on how algorithms work and how much control they have on content in the various social media channels. The lower level programmers who control those algorithms have total control over the social media channels and the C suite folks have no real clue what those algorithms do. Zuckerberg has already admitted to liberal bias within Facebook, and that bias is clearly prevalent in the rampant censorship of non-liberal content. Unfortunately, the bias also carries over to mainstream media as well in the form of their notifications. One only has to look at the disturbingly hateful, anti-trump notification of CNN for confirmation. PS - no I didn't vote for Trump as I consider him dangerous even though I support his policies.
3
The simple solution to Trump's complaint, which could be implemented fairly quickly, is to establish an Executive Branch News Network. We can call it Pravda. It will go well with the forthcoming wall, and the almost certain forthcoming billboard pictures of our great leader.
Comrades, with fraternal greetings.
1
It is a fact that if you search Google for Donald Trump, or just about any other Republican, you will find overwhelmingly negative stories, while stories about Democrats are mostly favorable. It happens because the news organizations that Google considers "legitimate", like the New York Times, are left wing.
Two things: First, unfortunately, Trump has learned that any kind of accusation/assertion, ludicrous as it might be, does gain some currency in a media with the tendency to equalize everything, "Well, on the other hand, 'they' once did it too." Second, given that some 70% or so of Americans by now recognize that he is a scoundrel and lies all the time, what would one expect? Naturally, one would expect 70% or so stuff to be negative, eh?
Start telling the truth, stop insulting folks, stop throwing your best friends under the bus, start behaving even a little bit decently and things would change for you, old man!
1
One used to be able to find a video clip of Barack Obama's "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" comment on YouTube. That clip along with several other controversial clips cannot be found on that platform any longer. Scrubbed.
I'd like to crack Twitter over his head. He is the loudest voice on an unfiltered platform.
Twitter made him.
2
It is sad, so many people seeing this, not recognizing that america is dead, desperate for it to get up again. It never will.
#calexit
1
i suspect TWITUS dictates his tweets
and with tech as with all things don the con is clueless
Trump first unleashed “rigged” when he thought he might lose the election. Lacking vocabulary, the word keeps popping up, along of course with “fake news.”
1
OK, Ms. Swisher, you got me on codswallop. Never heard (or read) that one before. Had to look it up on Wiktionary. Good word.
Anyway, I certainly feel for you if you are so addicted to social media that you need a mediation app (never heard of Fortnite either). I have no use for it: Twitter is, as you suggest, for twits and Facebook for narcissists; don't see the point. I get by with reading Fake News on the web (and using Google for anything else) and keeping in touch with people with e-mail.
1
Reality check. #1 - we have a president who uses Twitter at all hours of the night and day. #2 - He wakes up and Googles himself and then complains about it to millions. #3- there are people who voted for him, and who believe every single tippity tappity of those tiny keys.
Get out the vote. Yours, the neighbor's, etc etc.
3
Kara doesn't mention the most ludicrous thing about his attack on Big Tech. First he says how biased and bad for the country Google is, and then without exhaling, he brags about Nasdaq 8000 that was attained because of the advances in software and technology from Google, Amazon, Twitter....
1
I classify Trump's latest very simply: oh look, one more example of a rich white guy turning purple because various media have a bad, bad habit of telling folks the truth about what he's up to.
See also the closely-related file, "White Men Get Picked On More Than ANYBODY!"
3
Here you're about face for what you said to Bill Maher...
You don't understand Donnie.
He does not care if it is patently false.
You are not kind to him, therefore you should be arrested.
1
I did look it up. Merriam-Webster lists “trumpery” as a synonym for “codswallop”!
1
History would find many parallels between behavior of Mr. Trump period as President and a series of notorious dictators from the XX-th and XXI-st century. They all started by controlling the media which ultimately idolized daily the local leader, transforming facts and truth to suit a predetermined agenda. Mr. Trump apparently believes in the notorious statement that if you tell a lie many times, people will end believing its true.
3
This in the title "Trump’s Ludicrous" says it all.
Here is a thought: Maybe Trump is seeing so much bad news about him on Google search bc there is BAD news about him! What a concept.
3
@dolly Patterson: The truth hurts!
I read an article in the Guardian this morning about a possible colonisation of Mars. Now I see its potential: let´s kill two birds with one stone (for animal lovers: that´s a metaphor). On Mars there is no chance of the chief chump being able to tweet, while on the other hand he would no longer be disturbed by posts on the evil Google platform. I suggest Air Force One be converted for its new mission as soon as possible.
...but he saw it on Fox, so it must be true...
1
Regardless of the day's codswallop spewed by the leader of the free world, his pose at the top of this article speaks volumes about the childish petulance that chillingly/constantly threatens our democracy. BTW, if you want to Google something else, try the word 'kakistocracy.'
1
The Tech companies are all owned and managed by left wing, anti- conservatives. Did the New York Times miss the recent news about the employees at one tech firm who are afraid to voice their conservative values for fear of retaliation and getting fired?
I do think Trump is right. When you watch TV or read your paper all you see is liberal stories. I am not interested in them but have only one or two places to go to see what I am interested in. That is simply not fair.
@Chris Anderson: Firstly, there is no such thing as fair - ask any philosopher. Second, What is a "liberal story" and what isn't?
If you hold trump under that bright, ugly, truth light then he complains bitterly. he prefers to lie and for you to not question it.
Question it!
Mr Trump's continuous assault on reality goes on undiminished. Now it's the tech companies that are out to get him. The delicious irony is that he's tweeting about it on a tech company! This is seriously koo koo. But then, so is the reality that he's perched in the Oval.
2
This is the kind of informative (especially vocabulary tips), fact-based, and, especially, DELICIOUS writing that keeps me coming back to the NYT for more.
Another great irony is that this unsmiling (except for his fake smiles) and totally un-fun and seemingly friend-less president is still the source of such delectable writing. The mother of all comedy today.
Old gatekeepers know,
Truth is not dead, as it has
Immortality
1
the president of the united states of america GOOGLES HIMSELF. let that sink in for a minute.
3
Well of course it's ludicrous. Everything this man says is a lie. I can't imagine that reporters/journalist aren't exhausted from politely pointing that out. One of two things has to happen. Either stop covering everything he says or attack him in the same way he attacks people. This sure ain't workin
Donald Trump has found yet another target to blame for his failure to lead the nation. He started with Crooked Hillary and Obama, moved through NAFTA and the lying media, fixed on the FBI,CIA, and Justice Department, and has now, (after brushing against all of Western Europe and the Pacific nations), decided that his real enemy is the Google algorithm. Our leader is a mad man. He is unhinged. This may be interesting as reality television, but it is no way to run a country.
3
This plonker of a so called President by opening his mouth and thoughts (Twitter) is causing a very divisive environment in your country, which is extremely detrimental to your Country.
There is a very good applicable saying over here.... Put clutch into gear before opening throttle.
2
Someone just showed him Google? And how to search?
1
@poslug
Trump Googled himself? figures
Yesterday, trump went on another tirade against google. As is usual, he botched it. He accused google of running a homepage live link of Obama's SOTU addresses, during the years 2012-2016, but not to trump's initial speech in 2017. google, calm as it always is, replied that they didn't feature Obama's first speech in 2009, either. Their policy is to include only actual SOTU's, not a newly-elected prez's first address to Congress, which is what trump is howling about. Now the real fun begins. trump's pin at the top of his twitter feed showed a supposed google homepage dated Jan 12, 2016. The problem: google changed it's logo from serif to sans serif in September of 2015. If you're going to lie, trump, at least try to get the details correct. And if you want anything like positive news about yourself when you google "trump news", maybe try a different search engine. I hear Yandex is a good one.
Link: please don't click this if you are offended by more millennial-oriented, modern journalism. There are some "rough" words used, and it isn't my intention to cause offense, but to present the facts of what trump does to divide our country.
https://gizmodo.com/google-calls-bs-on-trumps-claim-it-blacklisted-his-2...
all fascists and dictators try to control the press and elect friendly judges - any questions?
1
Great piece!! Thank you for pointing out the stupidity that his remarks uncover. After all his tweets which lie, incite and defame, he is the source of his own negative google query results as the world responds either in kind, in defense, or in absolute disbelief. He can't believe what he finds and that is a window into his lack of insight. Try and regulate yourself Mr. Trump.
Loath as I am to agree with Kim Jong Un, Don Trump is a dotard, and less and less and less.
That his basket of deplorables will eat this "attack on the net" up?.... woe is us.
2017-18 is the era of "Game Over". Climate change? "Game Over". America's leadership? "Game Over". My expectations for my country? "Game Over". I never thought such idiocy would congeal in this once great nation in my lifetime. I had expectations of "not fascism". Crazy huh?
1
Great piece!! Thank you for pointing out the stupidity that his remarks uncover. After all his tweets which lie, incite and defame, he is the source of his own negative google query results as the world responds either in kind, in defense, or in absolute disbelief. He can't believe what he finds and that is a window into his lack of insight. Try and regulate yourself Mr. Trump.
1
There is nothing ludicrous about his attack. I can speak from personal experience and from the experience of many, many, many friends and acquaintances that, for example, the most murderous, vicious anti-semitic postings by Muslims are routinely protected by Facebook while even mildly anti-Islamist postings and those protesting the openly genocidal actions of Hamas and its ilk result in not only the removal of the posting but the exile of the poster for periods of 30 days and more. Not to mention Mark Zuckerberg's openly defending the right of Holocaust deniers to publish on Faceboook (today's deniers being mostly from the Muslim world and the left). The liberal-left bias is glaring. Last year Google fired one of its engineers because he had the temerity to articulate POVs that were not in lockstep with liberal-left dogma. And just yesterday hundreds of Facebook employees complained that their conservative views were being stifled by the company.
@JJ Gross: Some of the ugliest, most hateful posts I've seen on FB are from trump lemmings. Yes, they're probably in a Russian basement sweatshop hacking away for all they're worth, but what they write in support of trump is false, ignorant, and totally un-American.
But all Trump all the time on Fox is okay then Don ?
1
I can't help but laugh that this column ran on the same day the NYT featured a story "Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture." Anyone who thinks there isn't a bias against conservatives in the big-tech world is in deep denial.
1
They just need to invent an Alexa in the form of a mind reading pacifier. That way Donald will be happy and his mouth will be shut.
Trump doesn't like what he sees when he googles himself - LOL.
Trump's ridiculously over-inflated ego can't tolerate anything except utter sycophancy. When it doesn't pour over him 24/7 he can only imagine that it is a plot.
Yet another sign that he is unfit for the presidency.
3
Blame the platforms all you want. The real question is how on earth did we become such a gullible and knee-jerk populace? Why do we expect Mark Z. and Jack D. to become our daddies and protect us from one another like this is some "Father Knows Best" episode? It's us, not them, where the real problem lies.
1
Kara, you are the best!
1
Kara, I agree w/ 80% of your piece's substance, but you write in the manner of, that is, the style of Trump himself.
1
Exceptional article....well done, Kara!
If you want to talk about 'rigged'...on a volleyball trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan..."DeVos" country...I was shocked that our hotel offered choices of Fox News and CNN news networks, but MSNBC was not included in their television lineup. On my morning walk I visited the lobbies of other area hotels and noted that none of the other hotels offered MSNBC in their television lineup... #sad!!!
1
Here is a respectful, but blatant plea for clarification I make to the NTY editorial staff: Can you please put together a table of all 'National Left-wing Media' outlets, the name of the corporation that owns the outlet, the location of the corporate headquarters, the name of the CEO, and the annual salary of the CEO? I'm pretty sure the majority of so called 'Left-wing, fake news, mainstream, etc. media outlets are big sprawling corporate entities.
Enough.
These howlers are not even wrong. (h/t Wolfgang Pauli)
Rebuttal puts you on defense and keeps you there. Attack instead, somewhere he's not expecting. That's how you deal with trolls, online or in the White House.
"Thou shalt attack anything that offendth thee."
Isn't that the First Commandment, thou Evangelical supporters?
1
Incipient Fascism is at hand. Trump does not use his government, he dictates.
Yes. How dare google aggregate news from journalists who relentlessly report the things the President says and does! Next, he’ll be shooting the TV.
What laws compel a private company to allow anyone to post anything on their privately financed website? I have a website, and I don't let anyone post anything there. Can I post a nasty note on the White House website? I can't? Wouldn't it be illegal to prevent me from doing so?
Agent Orange is simply pushing back as the tide of realisation that he is a con man and a complete crook washes back against the shore line and will slowly wash him away like a sand castle with no foundation.
All I know is that my Google news feed Always includes “headlines” from Fox although I’ve never given the algorithm any indication I have any interest in that blather.
Interestingly the 4 or 5 curated headlines in my top news stories routinely include NY Times, Wash Po, WSJ, The Atlantic covering the sobering world news of the day (political, economic, scientific) while the Fox headlines are always about freakish scandals and crime. Their favorite crime stories follow 2 main arcs from what the headlines say 1) illegal alien crime and 2) Gun owner protects self against attempted crime by illegal alien.
Enough with claims of alternate truths, fake news, and biased search engines. Make Orwel fiction again!
1
Trump needs attention at all times, so he stirs up discord wherever he can. This is not about the media, but about Trump and his attempts to hold onto his base, who will believe him without questioning his facts (which usually don't exist), his motives or his timing.
Google was fined multiple billion dollars by the EU for search bias...Try using another search engine and compare it to google's results...It's ludicrous to even suggest Google isn't biased.
Tech is biased against Trump and conservatives in general. Right now that makes them democrat darlings and somehow not the massive evil corporations they really are.
3
@Dan
Different does not equal biased.
@Dan
You should read what EU fined Google for. It is requiring their search on Android , not tilting search results. This is the exact same situation in case of Microsoft when they forced OEMs to install internet explorer on every windows machine.
1
Tech company owners tend to be for social progress but at the same time also for inequality and against higher minimum wages and collective bargaining. They don't fit in the classic left-right divide and it also partially explains why we do make social progress (LGBTQ rights, diversity on ballots, legalisation of marijuana, etc.) in Blue States but continue to be denied our share of the proceeds of economic growth no matter which party is/was in control.
In other words, the fact that these companies are branded liberal only shows how the Democratic agenda is still very much controlled by the moderates.
As for Google, my biggest annoyance with it is the instant exploitation of searches. Try looking up some interesting facts on cockroaches... you'll be bombarded with pest control ads for weeks. Glad there are alternatives like DuckDuckGo available.
11
Folks; this whole thing is a smoke screen, a kerfluffle meant to redirect your attention away from the fact that we bear witness to the most corrupt administration on record. The duplicitous, felonious crowd he surrounds himself with are engaged in outright theft, to say nothing of abuse of power, and they recognize that mid-November is coming. Ignore the noise, folks, and concentrate on how you can best send this crowd their mid-term job approval rating. VOTE!
You can't really explain Trump's diatribes with logic because he is seldom logical and actually he often appears completely unhinged. He is like a small child who lashes out when reprimanded, but unfortunately he is doing this while sitting in the White House and holding our government in his little hands. Good choice there America.
This does not address or even articulate the concerns of people who have been 'shadow banned'. Anyone who cares about free speech should be terrified about what is reported. If those reports are false, tell us. Don't repeat (pointlessly) that the NYT really really hates Donald Trump.
One plausible complaint has been that Twitter uses information on users who have been blocked to lower its quality rating on a user and reduce their visibility. This is open to gaming, where co-ordinated campaigns of blocking can effectively silence someone. Twitter needs algorithms which can't be gamed. And by Twitter, I mean the digital public square - everybody.
Any skeptical video on Climate Change on YouTube now comes with a note from Google to say climate change is real, pointing at Wikipedia. How can you possibly deny direct political bias from them? Perhaps climate change policy is religion not politics.
Donald Trump's attack on Google, like his attack on the mainstream media, is merely a case of "shoot the messenger." Trump does bad things; the media reports on these bad things; and the search engines take you to the stories about these bad things. Trump doesn't like that, but instead of not doing bad things, he chooses to attack those who bring these bad things to our attention. It would all be funny, but sixty million Americans believe his claims of unfair treatment. See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
Here's a thought:
Take down everything that is false and submitted with the clear intent to deceive. Take down everything that advocates violence, hatred, racism or xenophobia.
These will, in some cases, obviously be judgment calls, but people with fourth-estate responsibilities make judgment calls every day. Give those whose submissions have been deleted or their accounts suspended or removed an opportunity to appeal the decision.
Does that sound reasonable? Contrary to popular belief, there actually is a difference between fact and fiction, truth and lies, and commentary and incitement, and pretending that each should be treated equally leaves in a world more resembling that depicted in works of art by Salvador Dali and Mauritz Escher than the actual world in which we live.
I cancelled my Twitter account because they allow 45 to break rules as if the Twitter rules and common decency don’t apply to him.
2
Off topic, but we don't need to go to Google to decipher the meaning of 'codswallop' when we all remember it fondly from Harry Potter.
"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die." - Hagrid
Hagrid was referring, of course to Voldemort, and Ms. Swisher is referring to Trump. See the connection?
1
More misdirection. Oh how I wish there were no Twitter, what would Crooked Don do then?
this is the perfect venue for trump:
1. attempting to stifle free speech
2. launch another shining object to deflect from the investigations
3. reinforce his FOX base w rhetoric based on NO FACTS
perfect! a trifecta!
the tech savvy people congress need to "Just say no." there will not be an investigation based on fake news from FOX; tax payers' $$$ will not be wasted and as well as congress' time.
full stop.
Conservatives whine about discrimination when their content is dumped or blocked by YouTube, Twitter, Spotify, iTunes et al. But these are private, for-profit corporations (NOT public utilities) that have every right to purge or block content that they - and their customers and advertisers- don’t want. Conservatives should ask themselves why there is no “conservative” Google or Facebook, or Twitter, Instagram, Apple, etc. Truth is, tech companies /social network companies are overwhelmingly started by progressives/ liberals/libertarians who have no interest in acting as distributors for right wing propaganda that does not generate clicks, and for which there is only a tiny audience. Whiners like Alex Jones are wholly- dependent on networks that they could never, ever have built.
Consider this: Fox News has been in business since 1996, and now has a grand total of 2.7 MILLION prime time viewers. Silicon Valley VC’s would not even return phone calls from an entrepreneur with such a puny performance over 20+ years. Facebook has 2.2 BILLION active users. Until conservatives can show that they can build a Google/Facebook/Twitter/Apple, they should just shut up.
No regulations for big banks and others who harm the average American, but they certainly want to regulate free speech, and decide what we can hear, see, and read in violation of the 1st amendment. Do you Republican readers really want this megalomaniac, and his cronies, making those decisions for you? Moral people should leave this party in droves and look to support ethical centrists who want to rebuild the party, without corporate or big donor involvement.
1
Ms Swisher claims most tech leaders are libertarian. Some may well be but virtually all of tech staffers below the top echelon are most definitely hard lefties. Look no further than Google’s internal response to the James Damore incident.
It was Marxist day camp run amok.
I think Fox "news" is slanted against liberals.....meanwhile my local paper prints letters to the editor from Trump cultists complaining that the paper only prints liberal letters. Maybe liberals write more letters or maybe they write letters that are interesting rather than parroting some talking head on Fox. I've seen this tale before....I think Agnew first tried attacking the media as a political strategy. This is all very ironic since Trump would be nothing without media coverage, good or bad.
Despicable Trump and the current GOP (although they are a more sugar coated poison pill still despicable and VERY dangerous) are heard loudly and clearly every day.
They have legions of hate mongering mendacious pillars and wannabees pillars of "conservative thought" on ubiquitous self manufactured or confiscated main stream media blasting their tunes.
They even have a foreign power aiding their gaslighting of reality, and their actions and promised actions, on non-MSM social media.
Their success at the polls belies the ludicrous complaint that their messages as they want them presented are being stifled.
To the contrary their propaganda machines are quite OBVIOUSLY alive and well.
But their whining and complaining does scream a FACT loud and clear; something existentially important that We the People should heed and do something about.
That is: Trump/Pence and the current GOP want to devalue and operationally undermine the Constitutionally mandated independent free press.
Yes I said mandated - they knew we needed something independent with a clear voice that would speak TRUTH TO POWER and INFORM THE PEOPLE AS HONESTLY AS POSSIBLE. The FREE "press" has responsibilities to the PEOPLE not the Powers that Be!
Press exemplified by NYT/Washington Post try to be clinical and do take their responsibilities very seriously. They are not propaganda machines.
Trump/GOP get bad honest press because the facts of matters really sum negatively for them! HEED WELL PEOPLE!
To summarize readers’ views:
What’s wrong with cheating if it is done for the cause?
You can’t expect us to win on ideas alone, can you?
Thank you! The best smack-down of a pompous no-nothing I've read in a long time in the Times. I love the in-your-face stylistics way in which Ms. Swisher lays it all out in a "factual" way (and gets her "digs" in...especially the reference to "a low-rent version of a movie gangster") instead of the mealy-mouth "equivalence" we get all too often. We need more of this if we ever want to get back to real facts and away from the "fake news" syndrome that seems to have become the mantra of the right.
1
Shadow banning of conservative voices is well known. Kara, I'm not sure you understand the tech, how that is done, but it is measurable. How many people saw your tweet? If it goes from 1M to 20,000 for one group of people...and there are hundreds of them...the probability that its all just coincidence slides down significantly.
You can also do a test on google. Or FB
Mark Zuckerberg admitted they take down conservative posts all the time but have never touched moveon.org, Antifa, black lives matter...
To you, to your confirmation bias, that seems perfectly fine.
It is not.
The idea that Google and Twitter are rigging their platforms against us is absolutely correct!
Donald Trump doesn't care that his accusation is false. His goal is to control what people think, and since he doesn't have the power to actually censor the media, he instead tries to delegitimize anything that puts him in a bad light. Googling Donald Trump's name brings up some negative stories about him, so Google must be attacked.
Let's get to the real point. This isn't just about algorithms and platforms. The president is trying to control what people see, hear, and believe.
Big tech is not my warm and cuddly friend. So I hope they get put within some controls. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so you go Trump (and your little buddies whoever you may be). We might also want to inject some intelligence into the left-wing media to help them.
Editorials like this only appeal to the uninformed and/or the malicious. Big Tech censorship of conservatives is spectacularly well documented via screen shots, records of bans, undercover videos, etc. To deny that is just more #fakenews.
NO ONE has gotten more headlines out of use of Twitter than Trump has. It is ludicrous that he expects Google to give him as much coverage.
17
It is human nature to fear what we don’t understand. Its why true leaders are courageous. Somehow, our country will progress, despite the currently elected president.
Not only the content rigging charges against the Google and other social media platforms do constitute a clever move on the part of Trump to seek coverage of his nonsensical outbursts but also an attempt to blur any distinction between the mainstream social media and the venomously provocative Fox news like commissioned fringe media channels.
Swisher is a card carrying member of the Silicon Valley elite. She is hardly going to criticize her friends and colleagues in the Bay Area. As a political progressive, she will never see bias because her side of the divide is myopic on these matters. She is also technically correct that Google is probably not skewing results. But conservative suspicions are valid considering the culture of the company, with the James Damore case Exhibit A. Twitter is also, in the words of Jack Dorsey, a "left leaning company", and has discriminated against conservatives like Candace Owens, and has allowed death threats against GOP FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai's family to stay on line. Sure, algorithms may just not be working right in many cases. But why should conservatives trust progressives when progressives are explicitly trying to repress conservative speech? Answer is, we shouldn't.
1
Google's search results are rigged, but not in the way Trump says. Companies pay to be ranked higher for certain keywords, and the first x results of Google's search engine are usually useless.
I switched to DuckDuckGo and have never looked back.
3
@Anne
Duck Duck Go is excellent, and does not track your behaviors or abuse your privacy. Heartily recommended.
1
@Anne
Duck Duck Go is excellent, and does not track your behaviors or abuse your privacy. Heartily recommended.
Define "rigging". Is there such political bias in the company that it affects the objectivity of their work? Likely. Do users expect objectivity from these companies to treat all equally? Yes. In the case of search, is this bias reflected in the prioritization of results? This seems to be true.
I think Google and the other tech companies should own this. They should say, "Yes, we are liberal organizations and will filter news as we see fit. It's a free country."
2
@Richie by Yeah... But that violates the social contract.
The media giants are to big to operate as they please; there isn't enough private competition to balance them. Info-monopoly is poisonous.
To me all this shows that there is still hope for print media, where it actually cost something and requires effort to post news.
1
Thank you for writing this, Kara. I could not agree more that the social networks have been this pathological liar's best friends. We need a Trump Blackout for one week. If we starve him of attention, he'll explode.
3
Donald Trump, the man who can't figure out how to use a speaker phone, wants to tell the tech sector how to run their businesses. Trump knows as much about tech as he knows about any other aspect of American life. Which is nothing.
4
Here's something that I think about lately. I've got a lot of relatives who seem like nice people that are dyed in the wool Trump supporters. On their Facebook ever since he said that Google was biased against him, all you see are articles put out by right-wing media outlets about how Google is biased against him. I think the tendency to want to write this off as just as another Trump temper tantrum is very misplaced. His supporters for some reason feel very alienated by Society. They believe what he says. They don't believe facts. You can't reason with them. This is very dangerous, and needs to be treated as such. Not by Congress, because Congress has shown again and again that it won't reign him in, but by the American people. Not just on the left, but that broad middle which has typified our politics for so long.
4
It is impossible to condition a militancy to support you in whatever you do without eliminating all the peripheral distractions that can expose your con game. Attacking and, eventually, suppressing the legitimate press, those who oppose you or criticize you is an old, but effective, tool for autocrats of all categories. I continue to refer folks to that snippet within a brief interview with Uday Trump on FOX News (oxymoron) in the fall of 2016. To paraphrase, he stated that the presidency would be a step down for his father. That was the biggest red flag on the campaign trail.
1
Yes, let's all come to the defense of Silicon Valley because Trump attacks them. Did it ever occur to people that one can be critical of Trump AND also those he attacks? We have already seen Progressive and left leaning content web sites throttled and de-platformed at the request of Congress and establishment-backing organizations tied to defense contractors and neocons and neoliberals. We ought to be very aware of the power of social media companies to unilaterally make decisions as to what is allowed to be spoken and how it is allowed to be expressed. We already have well-established laws and a legal framework on the proper format of free speech with rules and consequence for libel, defamation, and slander. We should be very careful allowing nameless, corporate censors often following the "suggestions" of governments to prohibit or throttle speech they find "objectionable". Let's remember, when Trump said the system is rigged, he was derisively dismissed, but we then found out that the DNC and the Clinton campaign had rigged the Democratic primary and a written agreement to do so was revealed. This resulted in the Chair of the DNC having to resign in disgrace and the acting Chair, Donna Brazile having to call Sanders and apologize.
2
I'd argue with you, but I generally find the "Donna Brazile is the root of all evil," types are way, way too far down the rabbit hole to reach.
@FXQ
That isn't the half of it. Google, their execs, their shills (like Swisher), their lobbyists and their bought and paid for pols and ex-pols (cf Al Gore) seek one goal above all: to dominate every market they touch and thwart every possible rival to their continued domination.
Google is now one of the biggest lobbyists in DC. The previous admin hired so many Google execs and opened the White House to them so many times - 350+ White House meetings, by one count! - that it's fair to say that Google now has the Democratic Party establishment firmly in its pocket.
Eric Schmidt in particular has paid off hundreds of academics - law professors, economists, think tank researchers - to spread the lie that Google is not abusing its market power or engaging in anticompetitive practices. See the disgusting pressure that Eric Schmidt and his cats paw, Anne Marie Slaughter, brought to near on the sole researcher at CAP who dared to investigate these abuses.
Stop coddling our era's robber barons.
Enough shilling.
No more sweetheart deals.
BREAK THEM UP.
1
While American's may be tempted to brush off Mr. Trump's outrageous musings on restricting their access to information he would prefer them not to have as more empty bluster, they should nevertheless be discomforted by thought that their current chief executive would do it if he could. He has already demonstrated a willingness to use the instruments of government to attack his perceived enemies in the press. Consider the attempt to damage CNN by trying to derail the AT&T Time Warner merger and the review of postal service operations ordered in a not so veiled threat to the "Amazon Washington Post". Does anyone doubt that Mr. Trump aspires to an America that receives all of its news from the Ministry of Truth aka Fox News?
1
Two whole computers were studied! The scientific methodology is very Trumpian-- non-existent.
Mr. Trump would see more NEWS stories about his actions if he stopped behaving like an angry kid and actually did his job-not faked it
1
"Outrage-journalism" or "Outrage-advertising" has succeeded beyond the perpetrators' wildest hopes: continued conversation & motivations generating disproportionate attention, clicks, eyeballs-viewing resulting in money generated (or egos stroked, attention-paid). I suppose the world--or subset of viewers are easily misled. I sure have been, I'm ashamed of the perpetrators & myself.
1
Trump's inability to express complex thoughts using long words, coupled with his ready-fire-aim approach to public speaking - and his childish outbursts - all come together to make it easy for critics to dismiss him, and his ideas.
But his gut instincts are often better than he is credited, despite his inarticulate expressions - his trade rants, when turned into policy, have worked out well so far, for example.
And he is right about the media, if wrong about specific details. Again.
The word limit here is a killer.
So, for a complete refutation of Swisher, read Michelle Malkin's eloquent piecce "The Left's Long War on Conservative Free Speech"
Media outlets portrayed themseves as balanced and objective platforms at startup time, and are now so fully committed to left wing - or nothing, that they should be regulated.
Yes his gut instincts about white supremacists as fine people were definitely right on, if just inarticulately expressed. I guess that’s your argument?
While I did not nor would ever vote for a person with his viewpoints, ethics and morals, I have no issue giving him or his administration credit for good doings or decisions when it’s due, and I have seen the same in the myriad media outlets I frequent to get my news and analysis. Could some news outlets report more fairly? Yes ... but the same could be said of Fox News and other unabashedly unapologetic right leaning media and columnists during the Obama years.
1
I wouldn't read a shopping list from Michelle Malkin, given her inability to honestly describe a sunny day. So good thing there are fair&balanced, unbiased sources like the "Washington Times," which was founded by a far-right religious nutcase who said he founded the paper to help him build a worldwide Church that he'd run, eh?
@Sharon
Is that my argument ? I never brought up racism. And there is no reason to bring it into a discussion about media balanced reporting.
Bringing up racism is a tactic of the left, used to change the subject, when their other talking points have been invalidated by facts.
What's most frightening is not only that President Trump wants to say whatever comes into his head...and define any argument referring to actual data, science and/or cross-checked observer reports as "fake news"...but to play the role of supreme arbiter who will define what the public will and will not read!
Here is a President with no feeling whatever for the ongoing arguments in a Democracy, and how they may be refined by honest debate. No, he would like to sweep all that away and simply tell the public what is true by royal decree, denying or censoring any testimony that relies on a measured approach to truth and supplies sources with which to check itself.
The measure of all things remains himself, as conveyed by people are nice to him and say "good things" about himself and his "A++" unparalleled
historic achievements. The others are lying, and by odd coincidence, are guilty of the very crimes he deems unfairly attributed to the grand Trumpolini!
1
Twilight Zone time...
A powerful dictator from the last century finds himself transported into our time and place. He finds his words and cruelty surprisingly effective, using modern public media. He simply uses the formula that all autocrats have used over the years, finding an outgroup to stigmatize and an impoverished in-group to put a uniform on.
However, he finds his narcissistic need to stand in front of a mirror to be his downfall, for the "mirror" of the internet never sleeps, never ceases to comment, never ceases to need tamping down.
Rod Serling would have had a great time putting together a Donald Trump episode.
Hugh
1
No matter what subject Trump turns his attention to, he reveals a level of ignorance that is just scary for out commander and chief. Basic geography, science, economics, history, escapes him, as if he never went to school---actually, is probably was officially on the roles, but, let us say, he always received a Gentleman's C. I admit, i hear the same level of ignorance at social gatherings and in my health club locker room, but this man is in charge of the nuclear codes.
1
Great article. Would love to be able to see comments from other readers but they do not show up. Tech problem or suppression of free speech? Is this a joke or not? And in the age of untruths, how can we tell? Answer: if it gets fixed, I can fairly assume it was a tech problem and somebody cared to check out the facts.
Let us not read too much into Trump's behavior,
- He will say anything that is red meat to his base
- He knows that Silicon Valley is largely Democratic and therefore by definition a biased element of the Deep State and Fake Media
- Most importantly, he cannot stand that the leaders of those organizations are so much wealthier than he could ever be.
Unfortunately a popular minority of your citizens also find that the electronic media (as well as the print media, mainstream news media, etc.) also do not reflect their opinions and ‘alternative facts’ view of things and so are also “patently false”. If you don’t care for the message then shoot the messenger.
Entertaining, but overly and illogically apologetic:
The internet cesspool benefits Trump, therefore we do not need to finally subject it to some reasonable public regulation?!
Just yesterday NYTimes reported that a small percentage of employees at Facebook were complaining that the company was too liberal. They wanted more conservative representation. Maybe it's because, Liberal or Not, this President has humiliated US government.
The author has fallen into the same trap that other opinion writers have fallen into: She states that Trump is "patently false" in his accusations.
Too high a plane.
Why can't the writers simply call it as it is: A lie, and instead of "patently false" call it for what it is.
1
He has an inferiority complex and thinks everyone is out to get him. He also thinks that everyone working in the White House are his personal aides......not that they work for the country, as should he. Unfortunately he thinks he is the CEO of the USA and he will just carry on and do as he pleases without regard to our Constitution. however, his childish tweets are getting tiresome. Also, if he has nothing to hide why is he so anxious to have Mr. Mueller end his investigation. Which reminds me, where are his taxes?
Rather than look up "codswallop," I should have searched for synonyms for pandering.
It's a phone complaint. He's not attacking big tech. He's succoring his base.
Trump's incessant quest to find enemies, real or imagined, is becoming more ridiculous by the day. Soon he'll be blaming extraterrestrials for messing with his Twitter account.
I think its great that he's calling for a return to The Fairness Doctrine. I can't wait until its implemented and Fox News is put out of business.
That is Trump's way of doing things. He makes a ludicrously false statement and then says "prove me wrong and I will be the judge."
1
Projection: deny your impulses by attributing them to others.
Tweet your fingers off with with made-up (alternative) "facts" and find mendacity everywhere else.
Of course it’s ludicrous, but the effect of his claims, and the dust up around them, is to gradually give him more control of the media. If you tell a big enough lie, often enough, people start to believe it (to quote another Trump-like politician.)
1
This is all about the ruling by the court to allow Stephen King and others access to trumps Twitter Account. trump was required to unblock his account to certain people. Ergo....trump has been treated "unfairly"....one of his favorite victimization retorts. That means the system is "rigged" against him....again....Mr. Victim.
Now he threatens to use the levers of governmental powers in his favor for an outcome he desires. And he can't understand why the majority of Americans think that he "conspired" with the Russians to rig the election in his favor.
Thank you for plainly speaking the obvious. I wasn't familiar with you or your work until today and I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance. You had me at codswallop.
As he finally begins to fail, his anger and lashing out increases.
Yesterday it was Tech media aggregation and how they slighted him by posting too many stories which hold him in a bad light. Today it's another news personality, and a demand that the Supreme Court do something about the FISA court, and calling out China for his failure with North Korea. And it's still early.
For evil to triumph.... good people merely have to sit back and watch.
Among other things, it's a classic case of "shoot the messenger." If you don't like the news being brought, shoot the messenger. Trump, in his ego, cannot bring himself to admit that he is as bad as the news says he is, so he blasts the fake news media - and not the major search engines that deliver the news. This would be almost funny if 60 million Americans didn't agree with him. You won't find many comments below from these, because they don't read the NYT or watch anything but Fox News. It's a sand state of affairs we're in, and there's no quick way out. We can only plod along and wish, hope, and pray for better days. See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
There are questions that should be answered by the social media organizations:
* What is NEWS? What is the difference between regular news and breaking news? What is the difference between NEWS and a story? How do we know when we get the 'whole' story? What is the difference between NEWS and journalism? How much of what we react to is just a headline - because few listen/read the entire information. What is bias - how do we know when it exists? How do we know when it is significant and deliberate? What is the difference between bias and propaganda?
* What is a NEWS ORGANIZATION? What is the process to collect the NEWS? How much staff is required in certain areas before it can be deemed an organization [e.g. is one person a News Org]? What is the process to edit/update what is disseminated?
* What are the responsibilities of a NEWS ORGANIZATION? What are the remedies to cease or correct what has been disseminated - legal & practical? How many times can an ORGANIZATION be deemed to present significant & deliberate incorrect or incomplete information before it is not deemed to be reliable?
Why is there nothing in the article addressing Trump's video of Google promoting Obama's State of the Union address but not his? Is that fake news, or is there some truth to the claim that the media and tech are biased against him? Project Veritas have documented twitter's bias against conservatives - why is there no mention of that fact in this article?
November presents an opportunity to use that time-tested method of repairing an electronic device -- unplug it, then plug it back in.
See, Mr. President, that's how easy we're going to fix you.
1
Dear Mr. Trump,
If you want better search ratings, I would be happy to teach you about investing in a good Ad Words account and SEO. Maybe you’re just mad it’s not free.
Of course Trump finds mostly negative stories about him on Google. His support is highest among the uneducated, right? It's not the uneducated who are writing news stories in legitimate media outlets.
It's not "conservatives" who are getting shunted. It's the crooks, including Trump, his family, his cabinet, the self-called Freedom Caucus, industry lobbyists, the NRA, and the rest of the deplorable community. True conservative thinkers have always had a voice in American politics, economics and religion, and always will. The tragedy is one crook too many, Trump, found a platform to blast his nonsensical hatred to the unthinking masses.
If the algorithms of high tech don't use "shadow banning" or any other kind of template that precludes conservative thought, then the lack of good news connected to Trump must be coming from the MSM. This article is great example of that. If only poisonous info enters the hose, then that poison must be attacked. That's Trump's continuing message.
Try putting an article from the Business pages on the front page of the NY Times just once, and we'll call off the dogs, and keep the President's "sputtering" down.
Trump has already admitted that his definition of “fake news” is basically anything that’s not slathering him with effusive praise and uncritical admiration, so it’s impossible not to view his complaints about Google searches turning up only “bad” stories from unfriendly sources about him as just being sour grapes.
He's no different from any other paranoid malignant narcissist--he just has an enormous megaphone which should have been taken away from him a long time ago. I don't see where Trump comes close to behaving within the Twitter guidelines.
One way or another, media will tell us what to think.
Remember the cheerleading that helped promote George W. Bush's Iraq adventure?
The headline at this point should be: "America's ludicrous claim to be a civilized nation."
If it is possible that Google, Facebook and Twitter are rigging their systems to discriminate against Trumpism (which is absurd), it is an absolutely certainty that Fox Cable News has become a rigged propaganda outlet for Donald Trump and the Republican Party -- privately-owned state television.
If regulation of the net services would be useful, then re imposition of the Fairness Doctrine for cable news, particularly Fox News, is an absolute necessity.
95
Pat Choate--Yes, Faux State News should certainly be regulated.
1
@Pat Choate
There is a difference. Fox is a news outlet. News media outlets are famous for their lack of balance, on both sides.
Google, Twitter, and Facebook operate in a different sphere. All of them promoted themselves as objective, open-to-all, transparent, replacements to traditional media outlets.
Turns out they misled everyone.
1
@Pat Choate
Oddly, they go hand in hand. By the way, what kind of president threatens to regulate a corporation (that he can't) because they don't show good news about him. Oh, wait, a dictator does that.
1
The Big Tech companies are totally out of control, Whether the President speaks out on the issue or not.
These companies are supposed to be search engines and platforms providing interaction between and among people.
They are advertising venues, plain and simple. The people using them are the products they sell.
Now that they are limiting the speech on their platform or creating hierarchies in search results without notifying the individuals based on how much money they receive is not only bogus, its dangerous.
Today they may silence conservatives, as is the charge by Mr Trump.
What happens when user profiles change and they decide to silence minorities? Or women's issue?
Whether you believe that the platforms are "rigged" against or for someone or something, it is also the opinion of the other person to say it is rigged. The media has no right to tell us which it is. Your opinion is respected but don't tell others that their opinion is false. Very slippery slope.
Let's stay with everyone's 1st amendment rights.
2
Google has changed the world. At it's core, it is a free service for those who wish to use it for search. It is also a paid service for those who wish to influence what searchers see. It is a corporation and it is free to do this. For those who don't like it, stop using it. You are free to build your own platform with your own business model.
Trump is projecting his fears and insecurity when he complains about bias, as has been noted in these comments. He should try to understand the First Amendment. At this point his anti-US Constitution behavior, especially his violation of his oath to protect and defend it, mean the only solution is for Congress to force him to account.
Information technology has benefited society and will continue to do so, if not necessarily predictably. Trust is the central factor, but obviously when mendacity invades, it is undermined. Perhaps Ms. Swisher could address the implications of blockchain regarding trust. Although it seems unrealistic and impractical now, peer-to-peer/person-to-person trust is a possibility without the intervention of a third party, be it FB or the government. The indelible record of a blockchain could restructure or even displace/disrupt FB, Twitter or many other proprietary applications in broad use today. Who, less than 20 years ago would have thought that the then, and I trust now, cheerful online book salesman would become the world's wealthiest man and deliver diverse, tangible benefits and value to many daily? The reality is that many central authorities, not just the government, have a vested interest in their dominance, so denigrate blockchain, which can be delivered as an open-source vehicle. Yes, there will need to be economic incentives for practical applications, but that are radically transparent to the user.
1
Love this, Kara. Thanks for the intelligent perspective! Loved the Bill Maher interview as well. Thrilled to see a smart woman talking knowledgeably about the tech industry.
2
@Cathy Rust
To see a smart woman talking stupidly about allowing the information in 2 billion Facebook accounts to be copied and exploited, watch Sheryl Sandberg’s interview on PBS:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/sheryl-sandberg-facebook-made-big-mist...
“People who should not have scraped that data and made a directory of it...”
“We shut down this use case...”
“We have shut down many other use cases, in groups and events and pages and search”
Thank goodness! Er . . . what is scraping data and use case . . .?
What an appalling, condescending, and obfuscating explanation and apology. Remarkable that Judy Woodruff didn’t ask Sandberg to translate her terms for the 1.990 billion Facebook users not in the tech industry.
It's not a secret--the majority of Silicon Valley is comprised of left-wingers. Is it so hard to believe they might rig the system to promote their point of view? If Conservatives were held sway in these industries, the mainstream media would be conjuring up images of George Orwell.
Who would ever dared to believe the FBI and the Justice Department would conspire to involve themselves in our presidential election--in an attempt to promote one candidate over the other. Is it therefore so hard to believe the heads of Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook--liberals all--would attempt the same thing?
1
Oh dear, @Jesse The Conservative is projecting again.
Unable to separate his personal values from work responsibilities, he assumes everyone else is just the same.
Well, they're not. And there's a word for people who can balance those two realms.
That word is "professional."
"It's not a secret--the majority of Silicon Valley is comprised of left-wingers." --> I would be careful with that statement. People like Jeff Bezos do support the liberal's social causes like gender equality and the fight against racism. That makes them popular with the moderates and gives them a progressive layer of veneer. On the other hand he (and other so called progressive entrepreneurs) suppresses collective bargaining as much as possible and has already very low paid jobs subsidised by States and cities who offer tax breaks and subsidies to attract his business.
@Jesse The Conservative
"Is it so hard to believe they might rig the system to promote their point of view?"
Then how did your comment get posted?
Conservatives will believe any conspiracy without a shred of evidence if posed the slightest assault their ideology and you just added to the proof. (and Trump added to the proof with the latest nonsense about China hacking the Clinton server.)
You actually have no proof that ALL the people that work for the companies you mention are liberals…but that doesn’t matter when propaganda is the main game.
1
The United States is such a politically charged state it is difficult to understand the size of the social media effect and problem. Better to look at the EU to see a more evenhanded approach to handling th big business of social media. US Political donations and influence by mega corporation payments has created the best laws money can buy, at the detriment of all US citizens.
1
Why are we even having this debate? For Republicans who wants "hands off" of non-government business, this is certainly hands on. These are private public companies(meaning these companies are not government owned but is trading on the stock exchange for people who are easily confused with what public companies means) Full stop. End of debate. "Let the market deal with it." (Their words).
8
The clearest objection to Trump’s claims of bias against himself is the clear and dominant bias of Google etc toward making money, regardless of from where. The message is clear: if Trump wants more favorable attention, he has only to pay for it.
2
Don't let big tech off that easily. "Libertarian" is far right with little to no concern for the public good. Those guys are no doubt enjoying their big tax cuts, while not seeming to care all that much about the social and political consequences of their tools both here in the U.S. and, far worse, in other more vulnerable places around the world. And, yes, they can pretty much rig their platforms any way they choose. Ask anyone who has tried to view a bootlegged version of a studio movie or TV show.
1
With all due respect, Google regularly faces attacks by antitrust authorities -- here in the US and especially by the socialists at the EU -- that it skews its search results to unfairly favor related companies or those who have purchased preference. Google, in such cases, defends on the ground that it has never represented that its search results are unbiased and that it has no legal obligation to make them unbiased.
Recognizing that Google has the power to skew its search results and apparently does so, it is not preposterous to suggest that Google could rig the results to favor its well-known culture of progressive politics and disdain for conservative positions. It is revolutionary chic among progressives to assert that progressive political primacy must be achieved "by any means necessary." This is at least one means at the disposal of the progressive political interests, of which Google is certainly one.
2
I have serious doubts that real people are changing the Google AdWords or search engine algorithms just because they don’t like someone. It’s biased because advertisers pay for it to be biased. If POTUS or FOX want more coverage....they’re going to have to produce more optimized content or pay Google.
There’s no man or woman pulling levers unfairly. Data in, data out.
Revolutionary chic? Can you provide one piece of evidence for this mindset among mainstream progressives?
Wait a second. Let's go ahead and ask that begged question:
Well known to whom, exactly? Hannity listeners, maybe?
Thought you could sneak that one in? Here's a FOX NEWS ALERT: This ain't talk radio.
“Rather than attacking techies, he should send them a gold-embossed thank you note.”
A personal attack is the only way trump knows how to show respect.
Social media Russian style has got him where he is today .
Unless he smells money, his only feelings are those laced with bile and jealousy. The concept of loyalty angers him.
14
I read somewhere recently that “the first lie wins.” And for trump (lower case intended), a big lie wins bigly. This unfettered social outcast, with his congressional enablers abiding his power trip, poses a clear and imminent danger to the U.S. - if not the entire world. It’s hard to believe that he and his corrupt family will continue to receive lifetime protection after they’re done stinking up normal society. Sad.
16
@JR Gilles
I am hoping that lifetime of protection for Trump and his family will come in a federal correctional facility.
Trump's pre-emptively preparing a"stabbed-in-the-back" story should the mid-term referendum go against him.
6
Bless you Gail for your subtle reference to Romney's canine cruelty back in the day! Duncan Hunter may be more humane to his pets but, his behavior is just as weird. I do hope you will continue to allude to Duncan's rabbit again and again: it brings back such fond memories. And, it gives us all some much needed levity in this dark, apocalyptic era.
2
If typing "Trump" or "Trump news" into Google indeed results in pages of sites critical of Trump and his cronies, it's because the Web is full of content critical of Trump. Google's algorithm merely reflects what's on the Web. Trump doesn't seem capable of understanding that reality. But that might be a good thing. If he really did understand how many of "his people" truly despise him, he would be tweeting even more vitriolic tantrums.
11
@Ted
I think he understands it. His strategy, hand in hand with his base, is to trample that reality. Remember this Trump fundamental: What's important is winning, not truth.
9
Trump attacks everything that bruises his unbelievably sensitive ego. In the case of his Google searches he's largely attacking the reality that most of the articles from legitimate authoritative newspapers about him are negative.
Even USA Today (the most middle of the road, non-controversial publication short of National Geographic) doesn't like him.
10
If he wants to see more positive news about himself on Google, then he needs to stop lying at worst and misleading at best and do things in the interest of the people and the planet to get better results.
It really is simple for him to get better results. Be a better President and be a better human being.
318
@James Wallis Martin "Being a better president" was lost before inauguration. The best thing this guy can do: Go confess to Mueller. We all want his tax returns.
2
@James Wallis Martin
Simple ,indeed.
But impossible for Trump.
1
@James Wallis Martin
You assume mr. trump wants to be a better human being. He does not. he just wants to be king and since that is not possible , in our democracy , fortunately , in time he will be ousted I hope by a better person. It certainly rankles him about McCain being lauded like a prince, but who was a man capable of admitting his faults and mistakes, but he wasn't seeking to be adulated. he knows he will never be held in deep regard by anyone so he keeps trying yo buy or demand adoration. It will never come and he will never lie in state with people wanting to pay last respects,unless it's those who want to make sure he's dead.
2
The little guy is spewing more of his nonsense.
6
The is nothing like a thin skinned whiny bully crying that everybody is being unfair to him. I expect him to be belly down on the floor kicking and screaming next. Just like a four year old throwing a tantrum.
11
like the phenomenon of matter and anti-matter annihilating one another on contact, perhaps google/twitter and the president will vaporize each other upon contact.
2
Comical. In other news:
Stocks are up. ISIS is hiding in a cave. Unemployment is historically low. Energy is abundant. Military is being funded. NATO countries are paying up. North Korean missiles are grounded. NAFTA is getting axed. Illegal alien infiltration is down. Borders are becoming protected. Israel has its US Embassy where it belongs. GNP is soaring. Wages are rising. Jobs are being created. Prison reform is on the horizon.
BUT THE LIBERALS THINK THE SKY IS FALLING. That is why we have the President of the United States being constantly slandered and attacked. WHEN THE DEBATE IS LOST, SLANDER BECOMES THE TOOL OF THE LOSERS.
5
The military is being funded? When has it ever not been funded?
As for economic trends, they are a continuation of trends that began at the beginning of President Obama’s term.
27
Putin’s trolls have been removed so the positive stories about Trump are gone now. Ok
Use the Presidency to act on the behalf of Putin to punish American companies.
patriot.
7
I am getting real sick of this thuggish nonsense, from The White House no less.
The President of the US is supposed to be honorable, disciplined, wise and most importantly, representative of the entire nation, not just "the base."
And certainly he isn't supposed to sound like an inarticulate Tony Soprano.
17
An astute column. It is puzzling that Trump rails against social media at the same time he uses it as a bully pulpit and his principal instrument of governance. He may be our worst president, but he is also a Zen master on Twitter, a master manipulator. He is the bull in the bully pulpit.
7
Will somebody in the professional area of psychology please add "paranoid" to this man's personality profile?
6
It's amazing that news of his crying makes it through. /s
1
Nice piece Ms. Swisher. Too bad Trump and his supporters will simply brush it aside as Fake News defending Fake Tech.
5
Last I looked, Google is a private firm. Even if they had slanted the results away from conservative outlets, so what? They would be free to do that if they so chose.
So you don't like the results your seeing from Google? Then try another search engine. Hint: You're going to see the same thing!
Rigged, biased. Dumb as a Trump.
14
Mr. Trump is not rational and is certainly anti-intellectual. His bellowing is to rile his poor misguided base. He is trying to start a political campaign because facebook harassed Alex Jones for his lies and wild untrue consiracies. It's the same MO since day one.
6
Trump is such a narcissist he can't imagine that that there is anything in the world that does not relate to him in some way-it's always about him. To say that this trait of his is dangerous is an understatement but then, history shows that egomaniacs who rise to power are usually dangerous. I hope business leaders speak up loudly about Trump's threats and lobby Congress to safeguard the Internet
4
Google and Twitter don't have to rig their platforms in order to be out front with criticism of Trump. No more than the comment section of the NYT needs to be rigged to get the same effect. It's just the way it is Donald. Open, interested and inquiring minds don't like you, you only have mind control of over those who have lost their minds. their morals and their religions.
6
This week, Trump heard a new word: algorithm.
He immediately thought it a reference to Clinton's Vice President and went all a twitter. This is getting boring.
7
I gotta give Trump a mulligan on this one. He had just heard that Hawaii was the Little League World Series Champ and was very upset that the United States didn't win!
9
Of course the attack is false! But it's not ludicrous, it's dangerous. It's basic fascism. He wants to control the message, and he must be stopped.
9
Truth is false! Numbers lie! Facts depend on the audience! Reality TV is more real than reality! Ethics are anything you can get away with! I love my wife (and yours too, BTW)! I really, really care about you, believe me!
1
One thing we can thank Trump for is for reviving the fortunes of some great perjoratives. Kim Jong- un put the word “dotard” back in our vocabulary and I would like to thank Ms. Swisher for bringing back the great word “codswallop.” I now “call codswallop” on everything Donald Trump says or tweets.
2
hm!
Bush was google bombed with "miserable failure"
is google bombing still possible?
what would be something fitting that would google bomb Trump?
whatever it is "gangster" has to be part of it
3
Trump's "Kool Aid lies" need no sales strategy to be effective. The "base" drinks regularly, freely, and proudly; feeling quite patriotic as they gulp and slurp his affective sugary poison. His unfounded complaints about various search engine algorithms are just another flavor of the month to be consumed by the faithful, deplorable, fools. Tastes good!
Some might argue he won the election because of them. I can’t quantify this but Donald Trump is certainly all over the place. Mr high drama. He is so bogus it’s ridiculous that some people don’t see it. Even if the majority does see how he tries to manipulate everything to confuse and sadly some people like it. I can’t wait until he is out of office and it can’t come soon enough. He is a true con artist,
1
The moment was Mark Zuckerberg in front of our national leaders. These guys have no idea! Mark got it and we got it. Our national leadership does not have a clue. This is history in the making.
Please close down Twitter, at least until trump is out of office. The damage he does there is extremely huge.
1
I do work for people around the world & a few years ago, was talking with a European client. He asked my opinion of a certain U.S. publishing firm. Me: "Oh, they're good. But you must have noticed, they are extremely left-wing." Client: "In Europe we call that 'center-right'."
1
The idea that Google is skewing search results and the Trump administration feels maybe regulations are called for is funny. Maybe he should go back again on Fox & Friends and in between the multitude of liberal news stories they run he could talk about how unfair all of this is.
1
Distrust is Trump's and Putin's trump card. If they can get the populous fired up, they win. Not on quality of life issues like education (which the populous is not interested in) or healthcare, (gosh, poor sick people should surrender to their Darwinian gods). But attack the Intelligence, Judicial, Press, and other thinking forms that challenge blind faith in him, and you've got 60 plus million votes. So, why not attack Trump, Big Tech? Please?
2
For the love of God please someone take away his phone or at least have his wife switch off his phone after 5 tweets a day. No one should have to read that many lies and vitriol every single day.
1
Let's take some "content" from Trump and index it for search: "They don't send us their best people.... some of them are murderers and rapists. Some are also good people".
What are the key words to be used as the search terms? Murderer, rapists. good people?
Is there any information here? Why would you find this useful to show up in a search? Are you going to learn anything from it? About Mexico. About US immigration policy. About political asylum seekers from Central and South America?
You can't index ranting, or gibberish, as searchable content. There are no algorithms that can turn nonsense into text that can be "intelligently searched".
If you Google "trump lies", you will retrieve 100's of links to content that quotes Trump accurately, verbatim. Google is not in fact suppressing content about Mr Trump. He is simply using the wrong search terms.
3
How can he criticize Twitter by being his major user?
1
The classic symptoms of what psychiatrists calls 'projection' ---
you attribute to others what you yourself are doing. It's a defense against attack, while you actually do what causes the attack.
That's Trump calling the media 'and enemy of the people."
And saying “Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people … People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!” Yes, and the ! is apt.
See book, "The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year", by Amy Siskind. "Her accounts have become a real-time record of the Trump era, one fallen norm at a time." - Politico.
Can we get our norms back?
How do psychiatrists treat patients with symptoms of projection and paranoia? How to contain them and prevent them from doing more harm?
114
@MeredithIf you don't get by now that the President was never quoted verbatim saying the words "the media or reporters is the enemy of the people" by now, you are willing to enable the fake news that he complains about. He HAS said, the "fake news" is the enemy of the people. The above article is engorged with fake news.
@Meredith
your norms are those of your political persuasion and don't necessarily reflect those of others.
@Meredith
Rehab for life maybe...zero tolerance to screen & executive time, keep them sedated, no outside contacts, basically lean and mean rehab machine.
And no way out ever!
2
It seems to me that the real issue here is that objective reality itself has a progressive bent and that drives Trump nuts. The very essence of the ideologies , progressive (to progress/change) and conservative (to conserve/stay the same) imply that the most news worthy subjects are inherently progressive. What interests us humans most is how things change; not how they stay the same. Hence, there's going to be a bias toward progressive ideals since they are more interesting.
2
Saw Trump speaking today, saying "it needs to be fair..."
Right. Like talk radio is fair. Like Fox News is fair.
1
Every single word he sputters is projection.
Today, to give but one example, he predicts violence after the midterms because that is how he envisions his minions responding to setback. If he blathers that Google is controlling what we see it because he'd love nothing more than to censor.
1
How do you write an article like this (using the word "Ludicrous in the headline") without mentioning that Google was just fined over $2B by the EU for manipulating search results?
1
Machine learning algorithms learn what people want, what a surprise!
@Dave Allan And what many people want is confirmation, not objective truth. So there is inherent bias in the 'learning' that produces results. I'm not making a judgement here, I'm just pointing out the purpose of the tool.
In FACT, Twitter, Facebook, and Google have a MORAL IMPERATIVE to cut off Donald Trump. That's the thing I wish you'd discussed.
I'd say that most of what Trump says is codswallop!
Trump is the result of democracy going wrong, the glitch in the system.
Every action by or communication from this maniac is only seen by him through his personal lens. There is no America, no world, no people just him and his vacuous, rapacious needs.
Only by being totally detached from everything is he able to square the circle of his need-based universe. America is on the block until 2020, hopefully ameliorated by the midterms. If he manages by fair means or foul to secure a second term then America will be on the damaged irrecoverably.
Every person who can vote should vote to save America.
1
Desperately trying to hold on to the credence and attention of his base, he's willing to risk idiocy in the gamble!
The only Fake News is Faux News, that's Fox News, the one that legally claimed to be NOT a news service but an ENTERTAINMENT Company (and that's why they claim it's ok for them to lie to everybody)
No wonder Our Fearless Leader hates the free press: he doesn't control them. Any media who cower beneath his verbal expulsions are not worthy to defend the First Amendment.
99
@public takeover I take issue with your statement that our Very Stable Genius in chief is "willing to risk idiocy...." This statement implies that he made a strategic choice, of which he is incapable. He's made it very clear that his idiocy is authentic. He can't help being an ignorant and unhinged narcissist with sociopathic tendencies.
1
All agreed upon except for the ridiculous idea that conservatives were shut out of media until fox news came along. The insane conspiracy mongering ridiculous right was shut off from legitimate media as was proper. The Rupert revolution of alternative facts is a different argument.
2
Trump realizes that Google, Facebook, and a free and open press are more powerful than his corrupt house-of-cards regime. His paranoia is kicking into high gear.
2
Dangerously sliding into authoritarian rule...
1
Trump HATES TRUTH. He loves getting his EGO boosted, thus FOX and the other "not at all the news sites" are his sources.
1
I see things a bit differently. The tech companies and the media are undoubtedly biased against Trump, as they should be. The media is in the business of reporting facts. Trump is anti-fact. He is in the business of lying and spreading political disinformation. So, of course, anyone who is in the business of reporting facts will naturally be biased against a political leader who seeks to misinform, just as mainstream scientists would be biased against the Republican Party for being science deniers or a human-rights organization would be anti-Nazi.
Taking a step further, Trump has proven himself to a leader with strong authoritarian tendecies. So, I surely hope the tech industry and media are biased against authoritarianism and in favor of democracy. Are we saying that we should be objective and give authoritarianism equal consideration? Where would that lead us?
168
@World Traveler I think you just have to edit what you mean by "tech" and "the media."
FOX is certainly the media, as is Sinclair. Breitbart runs somewhere in between tech and media as a creator of social media content. Scores of conservative sites produce volumes of pro-Trump propaganda.
So I'd say that some tech outlets and some media outlets are pro-truth, and many are anti-truth, anti-fact. I agree that it should be the role of the media to report fact, but I don't believe it is happening. I do believe that Trump targets those who disagree as liars and those who agree with him as brilliant reporters of truth.
1
@World Traveler, it would lead us where it has already led us.
@World Traveler The problem with your statements is that you are using the word biased-which means that there is an intent to skew truth. All else is fine.
1
Hopefully the very rich people at Google will take Trump's tweets as good enough reason to contribute heavily to Democrat candidates ahead of the mid-terms.
2
In “The Shawshank Redemption,” the warden is willfully obtuse (about evidence that might exonerate the protagonist). The latter, when he observes this out loud, pays a heavy price: https://vimeo.com/85825471
With that in mind, I’d caution readers not to infer from episodes like this search engine outburst that Mr. Trump is a complete technological doofus. Of course, he surely doesn’t understand WHY his allegation about Google must be false. But I think he nevertheless realizes that it is. In other words, he’s being willfully obtuse. And once again his unspoken communication with his base includes this: "Yes, we’re basing our statements and actions on lies - the very thing we’re falsely accusing the liberals of - but it’s OKAY, simply because it drives them crazy.
2
“Which makes for a kind of digital gridlock that is perfect for Mr. Trump, “
Behold the master of chaos as he expands his empire of confusion to the tech and social media platforms. A malignancy we appear to have no resistance to.
3
Dear NY Times,
Would it be possible to limit the reporting of Trump to one summary of his tweets at the end of the week? I think Saturday would be a good day. We really need to start reading and thinking about something besides Trump.
"The idea that Google and Twitter are rigging their platforms against him is patently false."
Indeed. Facebook, Twitter, and Google's YouTube have done nothing but promote the online Trump Republican cesspool of lies, conspiracy theories, white supremacy, and online bullying. The internet and those internet companies are particularly susceptible to the twin tendencies that are the erratic Mr. Trump's only consistent themes: entertainment for his base, and using hate, rage and resentment in order to gin up and maintain his base. Russia, Cambridge Analytica, and the Trump campaign coopted the algorithms and full monopoly market power of Facebook and Google YouTube, on behalf of Mr. Trump. Without Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Trump would be nothing. His assertion otherwise is another big fat Goebbel-ian lie.
1
Is it not possible that both these things are true?
1) Trump is a boorish bloviator that says stupid things.
2) The major social media organs embed their liberal bias in multiple ways
You know that, as an experiment, someone duplicated Sarah Jeong's venomous tweets under an assumed account that was instantly banned - because the target of the venom was changed from white males to something else.
Google has admitted that it has changed search results in response to objections from US Muslim groups:
"To help prevent the spread of such content for this subset of queries, we’ve improved our evaluation methods and made algorithmic updates to surface more authoritative content".
Authoritative as defined by whom?
See https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-muslim-groups-welcome-changes-to-go...
5
If I understand Mr. Trump correctly, anything that is not complimentary is fake. So may I apply that lens to the things he says about others? No, I may not, because my interpretation of his meaning is too broad. What he means is merely this: anything that is not complimentary about Mr. Trump is fake.
Knowing that, Google et al. should change that line of code in the “detect complimentary things about Donald Trump” program so that “put on the bottom” becomes “put on the top.” Easy peasy!
Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed "stable genius," should create a new search engine that will reflect his modus operandi. It can be called "Swindle"....
2
“Rather than attacking techies, he should send them a gold-embossed thank you note.”
Criticism is the only way trump knows to show respect.
Social media Russian style has got him where he is today .
Unless he smells money, his only feelings are those laced with bile and jealousy. The concept of loyalty angers him.
2
There's nothing particularly new about this nonsense. The right wing media, which basically sets the political agenda in this country, has been whining about the bias of the supposedly 'mainstream' media for decades. The imagined 'liberal' bias of the media is probably been the most repeated trope in the media--it would be funny if people didn't take it seriously.
2
According to Trump, "Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people." Leaving aside right- and left-wing views for the moment, it seems to me that a lot of the problems in our society today come from the fact that millions of people just can't and won't shut up.
2
Life has gotten more complicated over the last four decades and Trump's following have been revolting against that for just as long.
Trump understands that he can attack anything and that he doesn't have to understand how it works since he knows very little but he probably knows more than his followers.
Twitter will cash in on Trump even while he's railing against them. Trump knows this and is counting on it. If he really wanted to hurt them, then he'd call for their boycott.
But Trump isn't going to avoid Tweets or Googles and his followers aren't savvy either so they rage against the things they can't comprehend. It's a long, long list too. Trump's supporters know that the Climate is changing and that their driving, heating and cooling their homes, or BBQueing are likely the cause but they aren't going to change because they can't adapt to a new world.
Or Trump's followers won't change. Trump keeps feeding them with nonsense and they eat it up. It's what they like about Trump: he keeps doing the same thing and he gets rich off it.
One thing Trump does know and that's his followers are suckers but he'll never tell, unless he can be caught while he's not looking. Still the chumps will be the last to admit that they're being played.
Thank you, Ms. Swisher. Your well-justified anger seethes just below the surface here and mirrors how I have felt every single day since Nov. 9, 2017. The nonstop codswollop (my new favorite word) from this foolish and dangerous man will hopefully drive voters to the booths in droves. November can not come soon enough. VOTE.
1
Trump's attack may be ludicrous to thinking people, but his base will buy it, and the tech companies will most likely change their policy to accommodate Trump's derangement. Just you watch.
1
The leftist echo chamber runs in circles form the nytimes to npr to the major news networks to cnn,to the major magazines, to the universities that supply the troops, it's a vicious circle and saying it isn't so just escalates the problem. Trump is what he is and that is not pleasant but sometimes he's right.
3
This was a fine analytical piece, but one small change of wording would make it more powerful. Just call the Trumpians "reactionaries," not only because that's what they are, but also because it separates them from the "conservatives," who are quite uncomfortable having had their very name hijacked and privatized for profit.
If everyone spoke this way consistently, the far more numerous conservatives could shed the reactionary squid that has fastened itself to their public face.
Oh please! Three things. First, Trump instinctively knows that he can play these media systems, with his feigned outrages. That's part of his game.
Secondly he knows, that these systems can also be gamed through technical gamesmanship. That is, big data, algorithms and high tech gurus like the Mercers, Pascale and perhaps Mr. Putin. He is not beyond using any of them for personal gain.
Both of these things are used extensively to persuade and dissuade the American electorate.
Last but not least, the writers assertion that Trump's assertion, that "Big Tech" isn't, or at the very least, couldn't be rigged against him is dubious. The thing is he is angling to have it rigged for him. This is orchestrated phycological warfare! Mr. Trump wants to be the conductor of that orchestra.
Unfortunately, this paper, as well as many others, refuse to delve into the nuts and bolts of how this accomplished, who is behind it and the cost to our society.
1
"But it’s been Mr. Trump who has led the truth-isn’t-truth team." True enough but then, he himself is the prime offender on any outrage emerging from the president's ever-petulant whining.
If he is a true reflection of the national character -- and we shall find this out soon enough -- then we can sign over our mantle of global leadership to -- what country? -- Russia? China? Albania? Zimbabwe? No country with the collective developmental age of two years old can possibly lead the whole world.
If it tries, ultimately the insects of the Earth will be happier than clams. As for God, she'll be disappointed but serenely resigned. After all, she didn't give global dominance over to humans only to have them blow their opportunity by refusing to use the brains she gave them.
Are we ready to admit that the creation of the internet has caused more harm than good? We weren't ready for it and it is causing havoc on most things we held sacred. Trump is an internet president, it created him. The fact that he is reeling against the internet is indeed a snake eating it's own tail.
The issue is not censorship. That is a red herring. Google is a monopoly. A monopoly in the marketplace of ideas is the most dangerous monopoly of all.
3
@Paul Central CA, age 59 What about Amazon trying to have a monopoly on selling content in either format? That's pretty darn dangerous too.
@Paul Central CA, age 59
Yeah but the Trump administration has nothing against monopolies as long as their management is friendly with him...
Hence Trump's FCC doing away with network neutrality thereby benefiting some of the most hated monopolies in America.
I'm missing the ludicrous part. Google et al are monopolies that in may cases have abused their power. Why should they not be held accountable?
4
@Mike Livin we don't hold them accountable for the continued use of weedkillers or for the overlogging of the Amazon forest, do we? Because it kind of feels you're saying they should be.
to be clear, I do agree they're monopolies and have abused they're powers. I fail to see a connection to the subject at hand however, since they rigged systems to make money, not to advance ideas (otherwise lots of still accessible nonsense would just disappear from search results)
Google's search algos ARE in fact "biased" -- purposefully designed and iteratively/recursively improved to maximize ad revenue. How could it be otherwise? They are simply selling eyeballs to advertisers. That is, after all, their core business model. If a consequent side-effect is reduced right-wing visibility, well, fill in the rest _____________. (Spoiler alert: goes to "free market value.")
I have a YouTube account. Uploads now have to pass "Advertising Viability potential" vetting. Nothin' personal (or political), just bidness.
Donald doesn't understand that the reason right wing news about him is so far down search engine lists is that what he wants to read isn't what most people want to read. It's rich that Twitter gave him access to so many more voters and now he is criticizing the platform.
4
For me, threatening retaliation via regulations or other Federal government actions, against a company that Trump doesn't like for any reason, true or false, is impeachment territory. Federal and state constitutions typically contain language that companies will be treated fairly/equally. This threat crosses the line along with all the other media comments the president has made since about day one - it is dictator territory, not the US of our constitution and nearly 250 years of practice. What do authoritarian revolutions try to do first thing - control the media. Shameless actions by a US president.
5
The secret to solving Trump technologically may be to trap him in the right Google Search loop. It would be sort of like the dog that chases its own tail -- and finally catches it. So the question then becomes: as the dog eats itself, does it begin to disappear? One can only hope so.
Anyway, "Trump news" is ploddingly dull and clearly falls short of the mark. Something more intricately provocative is needed. My personal favorite is "Donald Trump Antichrist." Google reports an uptick in activity occurring last spring around the time Trump announced his decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. That triggered a temporary surge in Armageddon connectivity. Then came the Singapore Summit with Little Rocket Man followed by the Putin Swoon. Attention spans, already stretched and frazzled, were shortened even further. It seems that neither Testament, Old or New, offers a plausible counterpart to Kim Jong-un.
The beauty of the Antichrist maneuver is that it gets Trump and everybody else on the same page with a trope that is nearly two thousand years old and includes everyone from Nostradamus to Newton. It shouldn't take a major increase in traffic to get the Evangelicals hooked; they are always looking for a good conspiracy. Plus climate change denial seems to be wearing thin.
Who knows where it all would eventually lead, but almost anything would be an improvement over what we have now. We have unleashed the demons of our subconscious. Our only choice is to let them run.
1
One good thing about Trump is that my vocabulary is improving. Many is the time I had to pause reading an article about Trump to google a word that I was not completely familiar with; mendacious, meretricious, codswallop, reprobation, etc. etc.
1
The TIMING of the is questionable. He is probably trying to distract from his bad behavior after Senator McCain's passing. Not unlike DeVos announcing arming teachers (to distract from Cohen and Manafort), Trump used the military parade and the ludicrous space force in exactly the same way. More media manipulation.
2
This isn't "ludicrous." This is part and parcel of the Trump and Right Wing attacks on all media that isn't making nice to him and isn't yet controlled by him. Don't think for a minute that if Kavanaugh gets onto the Supreme Court that he and the other 4 right wing Catholic judges won't decide that "opposition speech" no longer can be consider protected under the first ten amendment.
I'm not very techie, but I thought search results stem from algorithms which don't have political preferences?
2
Let's walk through this slowly for the President and his supporters. The Google search engine runs on an algorithm.....I know it's a big word so go ahead and look it up. So the algorithm looks for whatever is searched by the user and references in order the most searched items in the category. This is the machine and program doing this, neither of which are affiliated with a political party. Essentially what this means is the people looking things up about the President are interested in the items they search. Just an idea. If he spent more time talking about policy and things that are good for our citizens, those items might just rise in the search order. Again just a thought.
3
If Silicon Valley were truly out to get Trump, they would shut down his Twitter accounts because he continuously and egregiously violates the terms of service which apply to less important humans. Like, say, Alex Jones. Without Twitter, Trump might have to, you know, learn to write or something. Leaving aside that his books were all ghostwritten.
2
The best solution for Google and Facebook would be to create algorithms that remove any and all content which refers to Trump in any fashion, positive or negative - in much the same way child pornography is blocked.
I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing he’d want.
According to Maggie Haberman, Donald doesn’t use a computer. So what is the basis for his claim—how would he know this? Someone whispered in his ear, that’s how. He is easy pickings for every lunatic with a kooky idea. He even had QAnon in the Oval for a photo op. Exactly who is running the show?
If my elderly parent watched television for hours every day and became convinced that farmers were being murdered in far away lands, made paranoid claims about witch hunts and things being rigged against, were prone to fits of agitation/rage, or could not string together a coherent sentence, I’d make sure he or she got a complete neurological evaluation. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is not adequate.
But I guess Ivanka is too busy exacting revenge on McGahn and Don Junior is probably researching countries that do not have extradition treaties. Jared is probably busy writing his own pardon.
4
I doubt all of Trump's tweets are composed by him. Some attack sentences are too logically composed, too on point. They match Trump's bilious sentiments but not his speech patterns. Stephen Miller et al must be providing Trump's tiny twitchy thumbs with some of the poison.
In my observation Proverbs from any culture hold Wisdom that is tested against Time. In fact in our local language a False Proverb but its true meaning showing the Weight of a Proverb. The Proverb is " The Vedas may become False, but a Proverb will always remain True". There is some truth to this, While the True Vedas [Orally Transmitted] are all but lost, Vedas in the present age codified and written are all falsely interpreted and passed on. Nevertheless True Vedas doe exist somewhere hidden.
Mr. G.W.Bush sums it up perfectly, When asked he replied "In the Long run, We are all Dead".
Remember that Trump praises people like Alex Jones (InfoWars) while simultaneously declaring CNN "fake." But there is a reason Alex Jones and Trump himself are vulnerable to slander suits, while their critics are less often dragged into court: because there is a world of difference between a "negative" story and "fake" story. Even knowing this, Trump has purposefully used his propaganda to equate negative news with fake news in a (wildly successful) effort to condition his base to disregard any negative news about him.
The same strategy underlies Trump's purposefully dishonest use of the word "rigged." Trump would have us all believe that a society nefariously rigged against conservatives in general (and him in particular) has nevertheless granted him the presidency despite the fact that he lost the election by millions of votes. More generally, a supposedly "rigged" liberal system has allowed the GOP, representing an ever-decreasing percentage of the U.S. electorate, majority control of almost every branch of local, state and federal government. This includes, of course, the cynical transference of a SCOTUS appointment from a sitting liberal president with a popular mandate to a popularly despised conservative president under a cloud of investigation(s) (and another pick beyond that; perhaps a THIRD pick depending on Ginsberg's health/retirement).
So it is easy to see what Trump really means when he says that "rigged" tech is pushing "fake" news about him.
"Rather than attacking techies, he should send them a gold-embossed thank you note."
Yes, Trump won the election by dominating social media, etc.
He used the power of NO, to turn ON the media, daily.
(NO and ON contain the same letters, in reverse)
An example is this very attack on search engines.
He says NO to the search engines and turns the media ON.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope that the Democrats and the press wise up to this game,
finally, and turn it around, against Trump and the Right.
I fear, that if the Democrats do not wise up to Trump's game,
they will surely lose the House election. Please wise up, Dems!
1
Perhaps, Trump is upset because the tech platforms are removing sites that publish hate-speech, and all of his friends are being purged.
"The idea that Google and Twitter are rigging their platforms against him is patently false."
Really? "Patently?"
I think he's ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
Here's how: In 2001, The New York Times said this about Pablo Picasso:
"Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso, exemplars of genius - They offer glimpses into the nature of artistic and scientific creativity and of how research was carried out at the common frontier of art and science. Even more abstractly, mathematicians mused over exotic new geometries that could be represented in dimensions greater than three. People were especially fascinated by the idea of four-dimensional space, with its implication of motion in space or time - which Pablo Picasso pictorially represented with his cubist pictures..."
But in 1913, The New York Times said THIS about Pablo Picasso:
"Pablo Picasso's pictures are no more relevant that a child's cartoon - they are The Emperor's New Clothes, and a Cult - They are 'fake art,' 'degenerate art,' and 'junk art..."
Prove me wrong, or prove me right - AND The President as well.
1
@MrMikeludo I don't really understand your point. Pointing out the NYT as if it were a single person, and in opinion 90 years apart surely isn't helpful.
"Narcissistic personality disorder includes symptoms such as poor self identity, inability to appreciate others, entitlement, lack of authenticity, need for control, intolerance of the views/opinions of others, emotional detachment, grandiosity, lack of awareness or concern regarding the impact of their behavior, minimal emotional reciprocity, and a desperate need for the approval and positive attention of others."
My guess is Trump hardly knows how to use a computer or do an actual research search on Google--except maybe to type in his name at least 3 times a day in the Google search bar.
But this latest attempt by Trump to divert our attention from the impending results of the Mueller investigation is laughable.
"Mr. Trump accused Google of skewing its search results against him."
Nope, I am afraid the reason is there is so much criticism and negative news and information about Trump on Google is because Trump's words and actions put it there.
Bad news is just about all Trump ever gives us, plus, he is really bad news as our current president (like taking small children away from their parents at the border, firing intelligence officers, insulting judges and the parents of Gold Star veterans, incessant lying that journalists are obligated to correct, denying climate change, insulting our allies and being overly friendly with dictators and our enemies.
Maybe if Trump did something positive and good for the country--for a change--Google listings would be more friendly and positive to him.
Trump should try it. That just could be a really good way to get more favorable listings on Google searches.
1
Okay, does anybody else see what I see happening here? Trump is laying the groundwork so he can declare that the 2020 election was rigged when he looses.
1
Donald could send a tweet, bragging that it will be read by over 50 million people, while also claiming that twitter is unfairly blocking him from reaching people.
As long as Truth has a liberal bias, Trump will complain.
This opinion is more of a rant, than a serious discussion of possible censorship. There are numerous articles (searchable by Google) which discuss biases and blacklists by Google, twitter and facebook based on viewpoint and content (legal content) e.g., https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-22/google-is-the-worlds-...
Trump unduly colors Ms Swisher's article and many debates of the day that have much broader implications, but in a more neutral perpspective, do you want Google deciding for you what you should view and can find? Many people were concerned about net neutrality for similar reasons. I would have liked an opinion that more analytically and neutrally discussed this issue, because in a few years, the shoe may be on the other foot.
3
I believe it is incumbent upon Twitter to conform to DJT’s perception of reality.
If he says Twitter treats him unfairly, then obey the President’s proclamation and make it so.
Suspending his Twitter account should be sufficient to align reality with his delusions.
11
It's all about the politics of resentment. Trump & his camp forever believe that those 'others' are taking something away from them whether it is "illegals" getting everything from free healthcare to free college (the right-wing belief) taking their tax payments or taking their jobs to "elites" and liberals taking away "our" country to the mainstream media taking away the "true" story to social media depriving them of top billing in all searches. No amount of facts can ever alter this belief because it is a core world view - victimhood.
38
@Anne-Marie Hislop
Thanks Anne-Marie. Victimhood. Your comment says it all. I would only add that Trump's ludicrous attack on big tech is only ment to change the conversation and energize his base. That's his M.O. Always has been, always will be. Because it works all the time with low info racist supporters and other frustrated single issue voters that he panders to.
Trump’s Ludicrous Attack on Big Tech
[ Of course the attack is ludicrous, but that sort of attack is just what Trump is about and we collectively need to recognize that and not be cowed. ]
8
This was to be expected, it is a continuing attack on any news, opinions, that conflict with his opinion of himself. It is exactly like the Fascist attacks on books, news, academics that did no have good things to say about the Third Reich.
This is an attempt at censorship that is specifically prohibited in the Constitution. Donald the Mad is ignorant about the Constitution, but he does not care, this as meant to energize his supporters, and as we see, he already has some believers in the GOP, and with Fox. A good bet is you will be hearing from those conservatives from places like Kansas,Oklahoma, Alabama, and their ilk.
Such action fits the definition of Fascism, Private ownership of property and the government tells you how to use it. Just look at the history of Krupp, Audi, Volkswagen, Messerschmidt, and the pre WWII history of Germany's industrial complex.
We have been seeing and hearing about this wannabe Fuhrer for almost two years now, what is left of the GOP is fine with them. More parallels to the regime is expulsion of ethnic groups, indoctrination of captured children, voter suppression, self enrichment of officials, turning voters against the legal system, you hear it, see it, and are being told it is not true, that your facts are not real facts.
DJT is abysmally ignorant of the law, he does not care, if you believe his constant lies, obfuscations, made up fables, you too are complicit Mr. Republican, you too are dishonest amoral, untrustworthy.
29
Of course it is false. That's not the point. The point is that the Trump base will believe it. That's what matters, and he knows it.
21
@Blue Zone You are exactly correct. I am always amazed that my lifelong friends, who I used to think are very intelligent, keep buying this stuff, all this stuff, every time. Cause: I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that their TVs are always on FOX, except when they are watching Ohio State football, their car radios are always on AM talk radio.
11
Of course, Trump’s complaints are false, as always. But maybe this is a good time to talk about how Google is in fact developing a China-compliant web browser capable of exactly the kind of bias and filtering that Trump fears. Google ceased to occupy the high road a while ago.
15
@Jim: That Trump fears? That's what Trump wants! In his favor, of course...
Let’s start with Trump!
As someone who lived in Silicon Valley for decades it is really hard to imagine the libertarian ethos in Silicon Valley being squashed by the companies they created. They are the original, "Get the government out of my life" people. Most are young, white, and male so they can't imagine anything going wrong in their lives where they might need a social safety net. It is true, however, they think they are smarter than everybody else. Group think is a big problem at most companies and why mistakes don't get corrected early on.
16
The Birther-Liar-In-Chief wants more 'fair and balanced' reporting of his serial Birther Lies.
That's rich.
This guy belongs in a psychiatric hospital...not the Oval Office.
246
@Socrates......Trump should be put into an oval shaped room, furnished like the Oval Office---in a psychiatric hospital under the watch of specially trained attendents. He can have secret service to protect him and the public from him.
Give him a twitter toy to tweet with. He can then communicate with Putin and other paranoid authoritarians and his True Believer fans, and comment daily in the Fox GOP State Media.
Agree that Trump's charges are ludicrous. However the potential for an unregulated tech sector to do just what he is accusing them of is very possible. Currently there is no requirement that searches be unbiased.
Since these tech platforms cross borders and can have great influence perhaps fairness rules/guidelines should be implemented on a similar multinational basis as the Universal Declaration of Human rights.
6
@Peter J. Any regulation of search would violate the US first Amendment. Google as a non-government entity could choose to hide any conservative (or alternately liberal) content without facing any government restriction (except the unconstitutional kind).
It would be no different than regulating the content of a newspaper.
In any case, there are many non-Google search sites available to use.
7
@Jeff Ratcliff Thanks. Valid argument. I guess the sanction is that where genuine bias is found people would probably move another search engine.
Let's credit Mr. Trump for recognizing the significance of TV news networks in framing issues and, thus, shaping opinions among the US public. He has demonstrated this awareness both during his campaign and also in his preparations for fending off charges that will be coming from the special counsel.
To defend against allegations that Mueller report could level against him, Mr. Trump has been tirelessly trying to convince his supporters that, save FOX News, all other TV news networks are suspect, guilty of reporting "fake news". And he has been blaming their perceived bias against him on the presence of left-leaning journalists in these networks.
The fact that Mr. Trump is now turning his attention to another news media suggests that he feels he has been successful on "neutralizing" potential damages coming from the TV news network front. So, it seems that now he is gearing up to attack the next popular source of information: the online media such as Google. There is a good chance that Mr. Trump's attacks on online media will not be ephemeral but, rather, they will continue until Mueller's report becomes public.
5
The only good thing about Trump's Twitter account is that it may, in the end, be his downfall. If it can be used in a court of law to determine his intent, it can used to prove the elusive "collusion" he's so worked up about.
He can either refute everything he's ever said on Twitter, or he'll need to own up to all. I don't think "just kidding" will work for him this time.
78
@Elizabeth A: various and sundry courts have already decided that his tweets are in fact fair game.
3
The real, and most important, target of that baseless tweet was his followers. He wanted to remind them that there are nasty forces out there who want to take him, and be extension them, down. It's a rallying cry to the troops. That it's been accompanied by another baseless warning to evangelical leaders that there will be 'violence' if the GOP loses in the midterm elections is not a coincidence.
Expect much more of the 'us versus them' fulminations between now and November.
33
If course Trump's comments about Google and Twitter are ludicrous. Any sane person knows they are. But we on the Left cannot continue to ignore these lies, and others by Trump and his base.
We've now had a decade of patent falsehoods spewed by Trump, other Republicans, and their voters. We know what they say is false. We know what they say is ridiculous. But it is not enough to know the truth.
Trump and his rabid followers understand the power of spewing lie after lie after lie after lie. Many of our citizens don't know what to believe at this point. After all, how could someone who is the President of the United States say things that are so wholly false? Or for many of us who have seen these lies for what they are since the beginning, it has simply become too exhausting to counter each lie that spews from Trump or one of his supporter's mouths. Trump and his rabid base know this. They want to wear us down, and the only way they've been successful so far is with lying. They certainly have no integrity, morals, or interest in the public good. What they do have is racism that they now no longer hide behind, but proudly proclaim.
But we must continue to fight these lies. It is utterly exhausting, I understand. But we should now have a better understanding of those who have had to live under a dictatorship for years, perhaps decades. We always wondered, how could people have stood for this? Now we know. But fighting these lies is the only way we may reclaim our country.
53
Anymore whatever Trump says about any subject cannot be considered ludicrous because a firm 30% of our population will take it as gospel. No questions asked by his loyal base. Make no mistake Trump speaks to no one else but his loyal base.
I wonder if this is how the last dark age started.
15
@JD Ripper. Mmmm... The Dark Age started with the Little Ice Age and the Black Death. It was "dark" because scholars died and left no records behind.
The best response to this would be for Twitter to cancel Trump's account forthwith.
429
@Fred
Several months ago, Twitter changed their policies vis-a-vis the president. His Twitter account is no longer subject to the same rules as everybody else's regarding racism, violence, etc. His account cannot be cancelled or blocked. Twitter is a de facto Trump propaganda organization.
@Fred - i appreciate the sentiment,...perhaps too little too late?
@Fred
Said like a member and disciple of Lenin's Bay Area. Stalin, always close at hand-in-glove with Google et al.
More blowhard Trump. The President has no legal power to force Google to change it's search results, whether or not they are biased. Google has every right (free speech) to publish whatever search results they want. If the Trumpistas don't like the results, they should move over to Bing or DuckDuckGo.
In the unlikely case Congress were to legislate some sort of restriction on Google's search results, the courts would overturn the bill on 1rst Amendment grounds.
Trump is just rallying his base, who have no regard or interest in Constitutional protections (Lock 'em up!) It's the distraction of the day. Pay no attention to that man behind the long red tie.
42
@Tone
In the unlikely case Congress were to legislate some sort of restriction on Google's search results, the courts would overturn the bill on 1rst Amendment grounds.
Not a SCOTUS comprised of 5 ultra conservatives, say Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. These men are all in favor of business doing what they want without regulation until they don't like where that would lead, at which point they make a decision having no sense in regard to previous decisions but which suits what they want to achieve. Remember, Conservatives are the party of limited government except when they aren't, like in the case of government regulation of abortion or same sex rights.
3
@Tone
As a DuckDuckGo user, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like their search results either. I'm guessing it would be the same with Bing (and then he can badmouth Microsoft too).
Putin's probably been complaining to Trump that Russia's fake ads and misinformation campaigns are being removed from these platforms.
Trump's master is furious.
111
"The idea that Google and Twitter are rigging their platforms against him is patently false."
Well, while Trump's perspective on this topic -- and many others -- is clearly incorrect, it's more delusional than it is "false".
Tomato, tomahto, I suppose.
5
I figure Trump tweets are always for his political base only. They will never convince Trump-opposers of anything. We should stop responding to them like they are for us.
10
The daily attacks by Trump on issues that he thinks pertains to him and his ever-growing paranoia underline the fact that he needs to be impeached and removed from office. We need a leader that unites society rather than divides it. A majority, yes, a majority of the American public has had their fill of Donald J. Trump, easily the worst president in modern history. Vote in this fall's mid-terms and begin the process of getting our country back on track.
22
Ignore Trump. This latest tizzy fit of his is just Trump showing off to his base. What Trump really wants is to control all media - from social media to MSM. It isn't going to happen and he knows that but he throws these fish hooks out there anyway and along comes good meaning opinion writers who bite and keep the story alive longer.
14
As a solid, guaranteed, to vote for Trump again, kind of guy, I only have one question.
In the name of human decency, why doesn't Twitter cancel President Trump's account? A lot of his voters would like him to dial it back. Do it for his voters. (Not me.)
We all know Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary. That is why there is special council investigating him. Trump has yet to produce his tax returns. He hasn't said when he will be interviewed by Mr. Mueller.
So, why doesn't Twitter cancel President Trump's account? Is it because he has 24 million followers? Guaranteed to be seen by well to do eyeballs. The kind of eyeballs advertisers like.
And who would ever believe, the MSM and tech would conspire to thwart the presidents message? And he still has 50% approval? Is there no Kryptonite?
3
I’ve never read a more crystalline distillation of the poisonous miasma that these platforms have become. The hypocrisy of their vapid “don’t be evil” and “bringing people closer” mantras aren’t only hollow—they overflow with greed. They were always destined to curdle, and they are fueled by addiction. From this swamp emerges an even greater swamp.
12
"United States intelligence community that Russian actors manipulated social media in his favor." As Clint Watt observed, "internet brought he world together and social media has torn it apart."Trump's election is probably the most significant victory by the Russians since WWII the consequences of which appear to be only getting worse! Perhaps, in the near term, it can be argued that the Russians have won the Cold War!
7
Now maybe Twitter will consider deactivating his account. It's a very powerful tool in his fascism toolkit. Here's a positive action that can be taken that doesn't require Congress.
21
Tech needs to figure out how to make the president shut up!
6
I'm being framed! everybody is out to get me! Google... the FBI ... the CIA ... the Attorney General... the entire justice department ... fake news media ... leakers...witch hunt!
oh, yes Canada too.
I can only depend on FOX news.
47
If you Google imbecile images, Trump shows up. It isn't Googles fault.
11
Memo to POTUS: alternative search term "Mussolini with the bad hair" will generate what you are after
15
Wow! Our most superb liar, the brutus ignoramus in the Oval Office, with the gall to complain about the News Media he has been misusing, to tell his fictions as the dogma truth? What a hypocrite. Your article was to the point, though a bit too benign for this unscrupulous monster, now willing to sink the unsinkable: Google and Facebook, and even his most faithful transmitter, Twitter, of his ever more ominous half-truths. Trump is a sick man, full of paranoia, much of it of his own making. And some by his propaganda arm, Fox Noise. I said sick because, by now, as he lies whenever he opens his mouth, he is in the unenvious position of believing his lies to be the truth. This would be clownish and entertaining...if it weren't so dangerous, so irresponsible, so mafia-like.
19
Trump Paranoia. The precursor to Fascism.
13
that photo is priceless
my comment is a quote from Bob Dylan's "Gates of Eden"
"The lamppost stands with folded arms
Its iron claws attached
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail
Though it shadows metal badge
All and all can only fall
With a crashing but meaningless blow
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden"
1
Trump’s ludicrous attack on [*]
Fixed the tittle for you…
1
Of course it’s a big ludicrous lie.
Trump said it.
Trump started his political career with a big ludicrous lie, Birtherism.
At least this one isn’t racist.
10
Trump will attack anybody and any thing that doesn’t say wonderful things about him. An extreme egomaniac.
5
All I can picture is Abe Simpson shaking his fist and yelling at clouds.
6
Why are news people responding to every blatant lie, 'ludicrous' complaint, nonsensical tweets and threats from this idiot? That is exactly what he wants. His supporters are not going to read this. And non-supporters will get desensitized (if not already) to all the noise and eventually not care.
1
Here's yet another case where "covfefe" whines about[1] the right targets (among them megamergers, the vile TPP, Amazon...) for entirely the wrong if not opposite reasons (not being sufficiently loyal to him, never mind that they ARE, far too often, and he isn't at all).
These marketing-NOT-"tech" megacorps—creepy Google+, creepy Facebook, and of course bigoted "covfefe" enabler Twitter—need to pay for HELPING the racist fake-news "conservatives" vomit their hate and lies, not for "hurting" them! Also for Real Name harassment, adtrackery, and data-wholesalery of people who aren't corporate or "conservative" enough.
Ad-creep megacorp C'Analytica and snake-oil hawker alex jones are crying about their "stifled" "free speech" all the way to the bank.
[1] Please don't dignify his assorted babble as an "attack". It's mental illness, and Twitter words and hashtags are exactly as impotent as Textbook Generic himself.
1
Well, let's face it, if he's not at the top of a search neither he nor his deplorable followers know how to scroll.
This man is about as desperate as it gets. He will do something stupid, dangerous.
He is the present danger to this nation.
8
People who trust the least are the least trustworthy.
2
…96% results on ‘Trump News’ are from National Left-Wing Media…
…97% of climate scientists accept anthropogenic global warming…
Tomyato, tomahto.
4
Where did he come up with the percentage 96%? Does anyone really he had a sample size big enough to justify using percentage?
4
We're probably overdue for another tech reboot. Clean install. All new social media. We can consign Facebook and Twitter to the dustbin of history. They'll find company along with the ashes of MySpace and Napster. They're done. Zombie media walking. Facebook will linger along awhile because there's more money involved but they're ultimately doomed. Seriously, who uses Facebook anymore? They've got more dust on them than a card catalog.
Personalities aside, the major problems I see with Silicon Valley are consolidation and fragmentation. Much to our detriment, we are experiencing both at the same time. The major players are getting larger and more consolidated while consumer choices are fragmenting into one big software vomit. The companies are selling the platform and sometimes the hardware. They aren't supervising the product though. They're all over the place.
Development is both scattered and redundant. Do we really need five different apps for electric scooters? Don't get me started on smart speakers. Everyone wants to be the next VHS. We really need to get rid of all of them and start over. I'll give up Google if you will. This nonsense is has gone too far.
49
@Andy
I basically quit Google more than 2 years ago. I use DuckDuckGo (DDG) for all searches because it tracks nothing. The name may be silly, and it doesn't have the depth of results that Google or Bing might provide, but it works well enough for me ... and I've been a geek/nerd for over 40 years.
My browser uses AdBlockPlus, Ghostery and Blur to prevent tracking and mask things like CC numbers, and if I need to view information that might be subject to tracking I use WiTopia to connect to a VPN that masks even my IP.
I do still have one Gmail account in use because my widespread family has used it for 15 years, but I haven't logged into that account online in many years. I use Outlook to download & read emails sent to that Gmail account, but my filtering auto-deletes basically everything that doesn't come from anyone I know personally.
I dropped Facebook last year, leaving Twitter as the only social media platform I use, and I only follow a few dozen accounts, almost all of them sports related.
It's up to each of us whether we use "Big Tech" to our advantage or allow it to use us.
2
@Andy Ah, but that is the nature of capitalism. That is what seeking profit does. And, btw, our opinions on this matter not a whit.
@Andy I suspect all these you've named would suggest to you the news of their demise is grossly exaggerated. Tech is all about change. These ones have been around a good while now.
Soooooo ... Trump wants to control the news stories put out by Google (nahhhh ... nothing fascist about that?!?) ... but has NO problem with the news messages put out by the KKK.
Funny, that ....
16
it is enough t o sour anyone's stomach-that both people on the extreme right and left, all eem to think government owes them some sort of moral or legal support when they think they're pony tails are being pulled online.
The fact is and it ought to be obvious to all people who've been to and through 7th grade, that the WWW and internet are esentially free and wide open territories in a realm of social or electronic discourse. There , while there are for pay sites, which won't let you in or on without a check or cash, most of the very largely read or scanned material is free and when it comes to WWW search engines, no one of the many that people use or used to use,(many have gone broke or bust since the beginning), are only interested in turning a profit by grabbing the "eyes" o0r obtaining the mouse clicks of viewers so as to prove to advertisers that their sites actually are seen.
If Mr Trump or the Right were suppressed-they would not be on the front page of the world's fake news every day.
One story I am sure IS being suppressed: As Donald Trump is/was incapable of graduating from any college but one of his own. He had a "ringer" or several ringers to do his work. Why has the Times not investigated this obvious scam DT pulled? I saw ringers used at CCNY in the 80's. DT might have bought the school--I await the truth.
@meloop why the reference to "pony tails?" Are you really old? I think that would be the best, lame excuse.
Trump and Thiel are paranoid, but so are many (most?) of Trump's supporters. Who knows - this could even be Trump's punishment of these companies for trying to block Russian fake accounts. All those sites could have helped the GOP in the mid-terms and so kept Trump safe from potential impeachment.
1
Trump is so consumed with "marking his territory" with his name on anything he touches that he fails to understand that much of what he is doing and has done is viewed as negative by most of the world.
In Trump's mind anything Trump is positive. In the real world, Trump's efforts at consolidating and strengthening his "base" has only made that "base" smaller and easier to mock and, ultimately, defeat. It's in-breeding versus cross-pollination. The in-breed is less tolerant, less ready to withstand attacks and ends up failing.
9
Donald and his base need to understand that if you include the word "news" as part of your search terms you are much more likely to find CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, or MSNBC near the top of your search list than Fox or any of his other favorite media sources. Breaking news Donald ... Google knows where the actual "fake news" can be found.
7
This is more of a rant than an analysis.
How about we step back and analyze the following questions:
1. Do mass media platforms exhibit biases and blindspots in their reporting?
2. Do social media or other online platforms exhibit their own biases that augment or attenuate the biases of news media providers?
3. Do mass media, social media and/or online platforms (search engines, maps, etc.) have outsize institutional power? Does consolidation in these industries increase that institutional power?
4. Do any of the above factors pose a risk to democratic or social values like the search for truth, free and open debate or informed self-government?
The answers to the above will vary. For instance, some see the New York Times as exhibiting a left-leaning or at least center-left bias. Others actually have accused the New York Times of shilling for the CIA or "global elites".
But the point is that just like some see money in politics as dangerous, others see mass media manipulation and slanted reporting ("fake news" in Trump speak) as just as harmful.
1
Two observations. PeterThiel, German by birth, American by naturalization and Kiwi by purchase, is full of codswallop by any definition.
Also, codswallop is an outstanding word and the etymology is a hoot. Check it out on Wicktionary.
5
Whatever negativity Trump sees on Google and Twitter, he should be thankful that it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
1
This article is wrong on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to start. First of all, Google and Facebook are advertising companies. They use technology to maximize the value of their advertising, and this is what makes their use of technology contentious. A genuine technology company makes its money from the sale of technology, along the lines of Apple or Microsoft.
The content displayed by Google and Facebook reflects the interests of their advertisers, and in practice is highly biased towards the ideology of consumption, where human needs can be met by purchasing goods and services at the price set by the advertiser, regardless of their actual value. If we wanted to put a political label on this, it would be “conservative” in the original sense of the term.
The idea that “page rank” determines what gets surfaced is charmingly naive. Anyone who operates a public website knows that thousands of people are spamming them with the intention of posting links to pages whose “rank” they have been hired to raise. Page rank is a lot like the tally of votes in an election, which measures the end result of campaigning on voter opinion. It is representative only if the campaign has been honestly fought.
And while we’re talking about “tech companies”, let’s remember that America’s largest technology companies are in the business of supplying weapons to the Pentagon, and that their politics have been bought and paid for many times over.
4
Don, you’d find good, positive reporting on yourself if there was anything good and positive to report on.
9
If only Trump's allegations were about facts. They aren't, this is propaganda of a demigod who defines anything that doesn't praise him as "Fake." He is sending a message to his followers a message telling them the both he, and them, are under attack. He is calling for them to fight back and make sure that everyone praises Trump all of the time. After all it is criminal to criticize a sitting president if his name is Trump.
Hey, it worked inside The Trump Organization - all hail Trump! Disagree and you are out. Perhaps even an NDA to make sure your mouth stays shut and your fingers never critique "The Donald."
We have the makings of a dictator who has a well-armed support group. One only has to wonder when the proclamation making anyone critical of Trump a legitimate target for summary execution is going to be issued.
6
He gets away with this because:
1) His base reacts positively to anything he says,
2) The media jumps on every time he says, "Squirrel!!"
But I do see that more and more (other than his clueless base) get that he is just trying to distract, deflect and confuse. The ONLY thing that he really cares about is feeding his narcissism. The ONE thing that really worries him is discovering how financially tied he is to Russia. Nothing but the money can explain his attitude toward Russia and his obvious terror at being found out.
I am increasingly optimistic he will be neutered, hopefully by the MidTerms. So, we need to get out the vote. It's the only thing that will enable rationality to return.
6
Trump’s paranoia is showing. Googling himself in the early morning hours might be comparable to President Richard Nixon’s delusional conversations with famous portraits in the halls of the White House. He’s starting to fray not just at the edges but in the center.
4
Take away my voice.....oh I wish. Take away the whole package would be best (to quote someone).
1
Assuming you can find it, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
One appreciates Ms. Swisher's reassurance, but did anyone really need it? Trump's anti-Google, ant-Facebook rants are of the same quality of most of his tweets: big on superlatives, short on factual evidence about anything at all. As in the recent Waiting-for-Godot photo-op and dysfunctional phone call to Mexico, The Leader gets away with "very, very horrible" and "worst in history", etc., when he knows nothing about, e.g., history. I long to ask him what the capital of Missouri is, if only to hear that it's a "great, great city, beautiful city, and a great state that went for me by the way, no one would believe it, over Crooked Hillary...."
4
Trump also suffers from severe irony deficiency taking to Twitter to complain about tech's bias in favor of liberals. This is particularly amusing given its role in his 2016 election victory via hacking and stolen emails, false identities and lies distributed via social media, his campaign's use of illegally obtained Facebook data, and his incessant dissemination of divisive and bullying lies on Twitter.
8
Trump considers Alex Jones and the Russian sourced information right wing facts. The fact that it is all lies doesn't matter to him and his base. They are not very well grounded in reality. They have a right to their opinion but not to their own facts.
Jones is going to be destroyed by civil law suits. If he is held accountable as he should be, in particular for what he has said about Sandy Hook, then why wouldn't YouTube also be complicit in that harm. The truth is that supporting and protecting deliberate liars and scoundrels is bad business for people.
Is it just me or is Trump looking much older, and a little bit like some kind of chicken. He has that same dead eyed look of a fowl. I assume his constant anger has driven his brain, what there is of it, into some primal brain stem corner of survivalism. Maybe it's more a reptilian thing than a bird, although, they are somewhat related in that they are generally without advanced processing and more dependent on instinctual survival mechanisms. Much like Trump. Anyway, look at him the next time you see him on TV. There is something, some kink, some failure of connection going on there and he is just acting entirely out of self preservation. Not that he wasn't always just out for himself, but there is something different. He appears to have lost the acting mask he once used to fool many people. He doesn't even attempt to appear normal anymore.
7
"Those who complain loudest about being silenced never ever shut up."
Thank you, Ms. Swisher. Perfectly decoded doism by "The Trumpism". (added to your very sharp insights on the set of RT recently).
I don't refer to him by his human species name any more, but rather by his iconicism, which precedes him into the room.
Trump is the chocolate we are eating way too much of, so, as a society, we hate that kind of candy for the rest of our history, or, Ms. Swisher, herstory.
I want us to eat past satiation so we throw up and throw out The Trumpisms, every one our great society seems to delude itself with every so often.
May the Binary Force be with you, Ms. Swisher, as well as all of us with values. The press is our collective antacid, undoing the ungood for ever more.
1
Google (Twitter I don't use) is rigging their platform against us Not specifically Trump. They change the operating system on my phone even though I said "... don't update... " with tremendous cavalier impunity. And it's bad software full of bugs that didn't used to be there, but of course all the little boys and girls went to MIT so they're brilliant and know what they're doing! Complete disregard for machine logic, etc. I would never buy a Pixel and I might just go back to Apple (I've had them all: Blackberries, iPhones, Android phones, etc.) I am tired of "off" not meaning "off". They do stuff in the middle of the night, whether it's on or off! And of course they're all trying to make believe that "... it just works!" They probably watch through the camera even when the lid is closed on our laptops! Spectacular! And someone please tell us why a phone has to have a camera on it and be operable with one hand... I thought cameras were separate devices from phones and I type nearly 200 wpm with all my fingers. That's hard to approach when I'm forced to use 2 thumbs... and believe me, I know ALL the keyboards, not just QWERTY...
A valuable column with respect to the problems created by the tech giants. The part about Trump, however, could easily be summarized with the following statement: "Donald J. Trump continued to behave this week in a manner consistent with his well-publicized character. As always, any story concerning his actions could be written in advance, including the details of his latest insults and examples of his vast ignorance of the real world."
Responsible media outlets like the Times cannot afford to adopt this space-saving approach to reporting on the antics of the president, because they have a responsibility to document for the American people the evidence of his unfitness for the office he occupies. The above brief statement, nevertheless, would fit the facts of any more detailed report on his activities.
2
Trump is not unique in his desire to control all that is said about him: Administrators at the University of Montana once received an edict from Main Hall demanding that every meeting should begin with complimentary statements about the university, and thus complimentary to the president in Main hall. The liberal university was failing miserably at the time, so I guess enforcing propaganda was a poor attempt to once again hide its failings under the rug.
And, like Trump, it was born from massive, pathological insecurity.
1
Ms Swisher, I think it's much simpler than technology. It's not about Google. It's not about Twitter or YouTube. It's not even about social media or the Internet.
Trump is a narcissist. Even if it were all about Trump all the time, it would not be enough for him. It will never be enough.
How do we deal with a narcissist? We ignore the fool. That will hurt him to the quick.
3
In my mind and I'm sorry to say it, but Twitter is getting some of its just desserts -- why have they allowed his vile tweets to go on for so long -- because he's the President -- if you or I said half of what he has said -- one false flag/story and conspiracy (dangerous) theory after another, we would be long off for promoting false narratives and out-and-out lies. Twitter now has their star performer turning on them -- now that's good "true" news.
4
Google's algorithm changes daily!
https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
19
@Carol Porter This puts a whole new twist on those Deep States accusations
@Carol Porter
Is anyone expected to believe Donald Trump knows what a algorithm is?
Trump is demonstrating how crazy he is. But that's only safe when his party owns congress. What happens if there's a change at the mid-terms? Not wanting to provide even more justification for impeachment, you might see Trump go relatively quiet. In the old days of journalism it was common knowledge that you didn't pick a fight with people who bought ink by the barrel. Bezos Buys electricity that way.
4
Kara,
As usual, a sober and well thought out piece. I have been reading your stuff for years.
Here's my worry. While everything you wrote is true and Trump's bloviating is impotent, the problem is with perception. He makes these absurd pronouncements and there is some sector of the population who takes him seriously. And many of them have firearms.
The madness of crowds - especially those egged on by an ignorant emperor - can be dangerous.
47
Trump knows what Trump knows. He spends all his time listening to Hannity and Ingraham and Limbaugh sing his praises. Then he does a search for “Trump News” on Google, and none of their phony puffery shows in the top returns. Must be bias!
It doesn’t matter that Trump only knows what Trump knows. What matters is that Trump’s base only knows what Trump tells them. So now 1/3 of Americans (not the discerning, thoughtful ones) will think that Google’s page rank algorithm has a liberal bias. Like science does. Let’s make reality illegal...
22
It's time for all of us to lay off deconstructing what Trump "means" when he tweets. In any semantic sense, he means nonsense.
But doubly the necessity to ignore Donald J. Tweet: this is the week when John McCain is being laid to rest with full honors and showered with a dazzling aura of respect--honor and respect that he fully deserves.
What Trump "means" today by tweeting about the unfairness of Google and Twitter et al. is to change the subject. Not just change the subject, but to shift attention to ME ME ME, because why? Because we're paying attention to a genuine American hero and Trump is having a snit about us not dreamily circulating around his navel while he gazes at it.
The news media needs to stop allowing Trump to cut in at the dance, stop allowing him to hog the limelight, stop allowing his base instincts addressed to his base in every sense of the word--to drive the news cycle.
Any decent human being, any genuinely presidential occupant of the Oval Office with half a heart would fall silent this week and allow John McCain and the nation to savor McCain's well earned rest.
Not so Trump. He's tweeting mightily solely to upstage John McCain. What a petty, shallow, needy man is Donald Trump.
What an American original, what an inspiration: Senator John McCain. May he rest in peace.
54
Trump world claims a majority of commentaries online about Trump and his policies are negative. Many people might infer from this that Trump and/or his policies are unpopular. Not in Trump world, though. If the data says Trump is criticized more than praised then there must be an organized plan to keep the American people from hearing the wonders of Trump. The recommendation from the White House? Affirmative Action for a disadvantaged right wing, perhaps. And, starting to lay the ground work for a conspiracy explanation if the November elections don't go the Republican's way? In Trump world, it would be due to a "rigged" system in which "millions of voters" were misled by "the Fake News Media." Last election it was the "millions" of illegal votes (apparently, the accurate count, so far, is seventeen). This election it could be the "millions" who don't vote Republican.
2
exactly.
I wouldn't get so worked up about everything Trump tweets.
No would I worry about these platforms becoming toxic swamps. You are after all entitled to look away.
5
While I agree with Ms. Swisher, I think she overlooks Tr*mp's key motivation behind these outbursts: keeping his base angry and feeling victimized. Even when they aren't -- i.e., nearly always.
11
Have you been on the internet lately (the past decade in this case), Swisher? People only look at the first page of all these sites. Of course the control the message and are biased. What sites consistently pop up first? That is a bias.
3
@Pilot A commentator I heard last night made a great point. Google learns from what you search for. So Trump is searching for FAKE NEWS or BAD NEWS and getting tailored results. Maybe step away from the keyboard.
Or, Maybe, just maybe, Do SOMETHING GOOD for a change.
8
@Pilot CORRECT!
@Pilot
You want Breitbart first? They're a low rank rag that just lies and promotes fascism.
4
Remember the ribbing Ted Cruz received a few years ago of being the Zodiac? 45's modus operandi of taunting the public with tweets and making threats unless positive approval and adoration is received sure is uncanny. Just sayin'.
1
Somehow curious that these very same Big Tech companies didn't come under Donald Trump's wrath when they were used by a foreign government to curry favor for him...SAD.
10
What's mainly evident here is yet more rightwing victimhood, another reminder of why it's a good idea to dump Twitter and, of course, the usual trump buffoonery. If only the guy would stop watching Fox and just do his job, which is to be the best reality TV show president he can be.
3
Thanks, Ms. Swisher!
Has there ever been a public figure in America with a larger persecution complex than Donald Trump? Can anyone recall a single day without a whine about some slight he's encountered?
For this naturalized citizen who grew up revering Americans for their giant-size confidence, self-assurance, courage and optimism, Trump as POTUS is a tragic joke.
13
Like the cake bakers they champion, just go somewhere else.
I had the thought that Kara mentioned about Silicon Valley being libertarian-leaning as I read the story this morning about the Facebook employee complaining about his and other right wing views are being silenced. I’ve never thought of Silicon Valley as being a hotbed of leftist thought and deed. Thanks, Kara - good piece!
69
@Anita. Tech is definitely libertarian, even in its outposts like Pittsburgh and Indianapolis.
@Anita: I wonder if that complaint by right-wing FB employees was coordinated with Trump's attack on social media. The timing is suspiciously good...
I don't think it matters if it is "patently false". Trump's mere suggestion that they are rigged is enough to create 'doubt' among his followers that these platforms can't be trusted. Mission accomplished.
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@MH
If this were truly Trump’s intentions, it is a good thing. Now, at least his supporters would now know not to trust everything they read on twitter or FB or the search results or other social media outlets. Hope Trump will stop tweeting.
2
@MH
It might be a good thing if Trump's followers begin the realize that the platforms can't be trusted. If people believe lies and distortions because they see them on the Internet, they are vulnerable to the kind of manipulation that seems to come with social media. Skepticism is healthy.
@MH Good. Maybe his followers will stay off the Internet and take their conspiracy sites with them.
1
"The problem with speaking without thinking is that you never mean anything."
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@Mr. Mendez
That's really good! Well said.
1
@Mr. Mendez
True, but it has sure worked wonders with the brainless scarecrow sitting in the Oval Office. All he has to do is plant a small seed of doubt in the minds of his cult followers. Uncertainly, hate, ignorance, and a firm belief belief in sinister plots do the rest.
Being angry all the time, thinking everybody is out to get you, imagining things, and not being able to sleep at night was exactly how my mom was when she was suffering from dementia. I wouldn't have wanted her running the country, either.
279
And then there's the rapidly dwindling vocabulary, coupled with increasing rigidity of syntax and inappropriate outbursts of temper.
I'm told Capone was this way, too, toward the end.
5
Pre Frontal Dementia is distinct from Alzheimer's or just a general loss of faculties. It is characterized by poor judgment and self aggrandizement. Trump can do no wrong in his mind. He is, after all, the real president.
The problem is he is quite capable of duping millions of voters. What does that say about the uninformed wishful thinking among his [base]? What does it take to trust TRUMP over the most qualified candidate in recent history? Hate is a kind of knee jerk explanation. Everyone now has a reason to mistrust government, whether in support of TRUMP's lies or opposition to them. It's only a small step of reason to mistrust each other no matter how far removed from the established regime and divide ourselves into camps of battle over the truth.
TRUMP is shorthand for TRUMP himself as "make ME great again"
TRUMP is shorthand for the voters as "I'm at the end of my rope. I have no better choice, therefore, I'm not going to question myself or anything I'm told."
TRUMP is not shorthand for democracy, american values, or championship of american economic interests.
Unbelievable, this guy is unbelievable. Does he have any idea how technology works?
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www.simplepassive.com
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@Mike Do you?
No, it is not a ludicrous attack at all. Trump is trolling the media/ us, and has been doing this since the birther attack on Obama.
- Keeps the attention on him/ provides a topic for discussion in all news media/ "sucks all the air"
(It is not that the Dems have nothing positive to say, it is just that when they are called upon, it is to discuss yet another Trump "ludicrous" statement; it has been happening since Trump declared his candidacy)
- Gives credit and air to a "new" conspiracy theory
- Distracts from all the negative publicity coming from McCain's death and the contrast with him
So, it is NOT ludicrious, and makes a lot of sense from a strategy perspective. Why is he going to stop? It is working for him!!
18
Let's just file this under the tab labeled Trump's Tiresome Tirade.
When this behavior was still relatively new to us--at least for those of us who didn't bother to figure this guy out--it seemed absurd. Remember back to the election. When Trump was looking like he would lose, he bellowed that the election was rigged against him. When he won, that talk immediately disappeared and he claimed it was the largiest, biggiest win ever.
Either the world is scheming against him or he should take sole credit for anything that turns out right.
What a whiny brat. When he finally gets a big spanking--I expect in November--I am sure he will turn red-faced again and howl that he has been cheated.
8
Grow up Donny, you big baby.
7
Good luck to any Trump supporter in the Middle Class, He gave a tax break where the great bulk of the money benefits only the rich and the companies who buy back stock. Anybody who is not in the top 20% or does not own a fair amount of stock is LEFT BEHIND, except that their grandkids will still own an equal piece of the huge debt Trump created. The debt will force cuts to Medicaid, and then Medicare (YES), it will prevent roads and bridges from being repaired (except by private companies that will then charge drivers HUGE tolls). If you are in the Middle class, Trump is really bad news, the poop will hit the fan in a year or two with flat wages but big inflation, and I feel sorry for you. Think about it.
6
Rational people of sound mind should simply ignore his ranting.
6
@Steve Collins
Rational people of sound mind ARE ignoring his rantings. What's coming is worth waiting for. Isn't it interesting when pigs finally discover bacon?
1
Trump is an idiot.
39
It’s time for to quit bitching and forget about about Twitter. You want fair trade, forget these stupid tarriffs and meet with our trade partner. Negotiate a settlement. Quit whining and act like a leader.
Trump needs to quit complaining about everything he disaggrees with. Today it’s Goggle and the press again. Not putting the flag at half staff in honor of Sen. McCain is a discrace.
Criticizing Germany for buying natural gas from Russia was dumb. They have pipelines to transport it. Neither the US or Germany have adequate ports to supply it. It’s none of our business who they buy it from.
Brexit was another sore point. Let the Brits do it their way. None of our business.
Climate change need I say more? Make America polluted again.
This administration, such as it is, has set us back 50 years. We need to vote this fall. And in 2020. Come on Congress stand up the Trump. He is wrong on every turn.
16
If Don had his way - which he gets far, far too often - the media would be required to print daily compliments to Trump,
and no contrary opinions. He really should read the constitution.
13
Ah yes, the same people that whine about non-existent censorship gleefully toss people off of voter roles, gerrymander, and close polling places in districts they don't like.
249
@chairmanj
Right you are...
Why doesn't every rational twitter user tell trump to shut up?
7
@Larry he blocks them
8
President Trump wants to distract from Senator McCain's funeral. He wasn't the number one news story so he has to try and create one.
152
that's a 20 carat nugget
sorry it doesn't change anything and TRUMP won't just go away if you ignore him
certainly is worth a try
Apparently Kara lives in a coastal Liberal bubble with a statement like "ludicrous". All of the big communication tech giants are Liberal owned and employ 99% Liberals. We all know that they suppress any ideology that differs from extreme left wing ideology as "hate speech" just like the big universities like Berkley do. Like we didn't see this coming?
6
@P McGrath
Those who are unwilling or unable to define the term "liberal" should avoid using it in a comment. That goes for "left wing" too. Otherwise the terms have transparently become nothing more than an excuse to divide people.
18
@P McGrath You, or Donald Trump, or anyone else in America are free to create a search engine that prioritizes conservative news, and promote it as an alternative to google. You are free to create a social network that allows anyone to say whatever they want, no matter how racist or threatening, and promote it as an alternative to facebook.
Neither of these companies is CAPABLE of censoring your speech. When you created your accounts on those platforms, you agreed to their Terms of Use. If they feel your conduct on their platform is in violation of those terms, they are free to revoke your membership.
Or, you could just continue to whine about how unfair it is.
19
@P McGrath
99% is an awfully big number.
I'm just curious as to who did the polling?
"Splendidly mendacious."
~ Horace, Carmina, III. 11. 35.
6
The one guy who should be silenced on Twitter--for violating all of the same terms of usage that would get anyone else banned--can't shut up about how unfair it is. Typical Trump.
If one of Trump's sycophants would just say, "you know, Mr. Trump, you might get get better press, if you'd just quit telling lies, and attacking our Constitutional rights to free speech? C'mon, give it a try, what could it hurt?"
But, no, of course not. That would be way too easy and might actually help Make America Great Again.
7
You know, this is a funny thing for me. I'm a liberal Democrat (yes, I have to say that even though I've been told it's wrong to engage in identity politics) and I cannot stand a single tech person in this country except Dan Price, the founder of a tech company called Gravity Payments, who had the Progressive Democratic Hubris of paying all his employees a minimum of $70,000 a year. The unmitigated gall of that guy!!!! Doesn't he understand that "unfettered capitalism" means squeezing the lifeblood out of every single employee and keeping all the money for himself so he can start a foundation as a tax dodge?
Every one of these tech giants may have a conscience buried somewhere, but all they do is keep every dollar for themselves through their so-called foundations. There isn't a real Progressive Democrat in the lot of them.
It took forever to get the Big Techs to stop protecting the privacy of sex traffickers, for God's sake. Every one of these people is cut from the same cloth as The Donald, except that they're real billionaires and he isn't.
Okay, so really they're all a bunch of libertarians, except Dan Price. Are they liberal? In their inclusive rather than divisive outlook, yes, they are. But, they all secretly love Donald Trump. He's letting them keep even more of the money!!!!
I despair at the stupidity of Americans. The reason nothing good comes up in a Trump search is that there is absolutely nothing good to say about him, except at Fox Fake News.
75
@CF
Nailed it!
Trump "googling" at 5 am is a euphemism. But for his cult, he could do it in Times Square and they would rationalize it.
1
Donald Trump's motto from his earliest days on the playground: "Heads I win. Tails you rigged." Simply, he believes that experiences that don't conform to his desires are the product of evil people gaming him. It's a fundamentally narcissistic and paranoid orientation that in its worst form manifests as megalomania. And that tells you all you need to know about the man and his actions, including his objections to Google search results that don't glorify him.
128
Two possible reasons for the latest Trump Twitter Tantrum-he is skilled at fomenting hate among his supporters that targets his latest peeves, and those supporters are willing, and perhaps witless, participants.
Second reason is to attempt to show the world that Trump is great, grand, a savior of the country that must be shown deference by the reputable news media (reputable being the key word, not the outlet where he receives his "intelligence" briefings) and now search engines and social media. Perhaps a feeble attempt to mimic another despot's propaganda: "His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.". The source of this quote is easily found, and is not fake.
However, the more the third rate despot rails against those forms of communication the more he paints himself as a moronic idiot, for many of us.
11
The #PLIC thinks like Stalin. In his novel about Shostakovich, "The noise of time", Julian Barnes relates Stalin's demands for fealty in all things, even music. He had transgressors silenced, jailed in Siberia, and even killed, if they produced even one wrong word. It can happen here.
4
This headline can be used after every early morning Presidential tweet:
Trump's Ludicrous Attack on ________[fill in the blank]
27
Nobody, but nobody can cut through the baloney like Kara Swisher. She is the best. Please, Kara, run for office!
6
@pablo
More or less true, Pablo... but... uh ...that isn't baloney.
1
Apparently being stupid, uninformed and venal are not yet impeachable offenses. Or, is it possible he really just doesn't like media he can't control? LIke a bad hair day, this to will pass.
3
"the donald wants to be "THE DON". That this guy represents the repucblican party and all of those so called conservatives is repugnant.
2
I hate Trump but Kara is nothing more than a shill for the Tech Industry.
4
@Nyalman Agreed. NYTimes must need the money, nd have become BusinessInsider for the tech barons.
2
@Nyalman
Did you take 5 min. to read the article? She writes about the many problems the tech industry has brought about and don't care to fix.
1
I’m with Trump — let’s fight “fake news”! That is, the kind the president makes up daily about ... everything. What Trump hates is news not based on White House propaganda or conspiracy theories. In other words, factual. Thank god he’s not a king, because he’d like to chop off a few heads in the process.
7
Obama was neither Kenyan-born nor a muslim. No one thought he was until Trump peddled this quintessential fake news. Now Trump complains (mendaciously) about fake news as he continues to create more fake news. And some people do not see him as charlatan. It's bananas.
180
Cruel, vulgar person keeps saying "we did a fantastic job in Puerto Rico" blatantly lying to the world, when 3000 americans died after hurricane Maria, keeps lying in a face of facts starring at him, do we expect him ever to stop.
NO!
It's in his nasty DNA, so whatever comes out of his mouth can never be trusted, now when it's convenient he blames tech platforms, who actually help him win the election.
Shameless criminal should forever has a stain of this people death on his watch!
7
The beat goes on. There’s no end to this. Trump baits and gets the coverage, keeping alive in rage his supporters that are now trained in a “them-against-us” frame of mind to justify and ground unfair treatment. This man had real talent for dividing ... I suppose “the great divider” might be his epithet. A real “hero” for many. The key to Trump’s “success” may well be the media. He certainly is cunning.
7
Donald Trump is a man who asked to have an enemy at all times ; he is defined by the need to fight an adversary and win. If he is not that he is nothing .
This is also why he has been as divisive as he has been with the nation. It is why most of his comments are negative , and it is ultimately why his presidency is doomed to fail .
105
@RD Well, Trump needs to have a fake enemy. There's plenty of real enemies, like, say, North Korea that he kowtows to. But Trump chooses fake enemies who can't or won't fight back in the same way, like football players or allies. It's a reality show fight for a reality president.
6
@RD
And that makes him very dangerous on the international scene, i.e. killing the Iranian deal.
My goodness. THAT explains all the ex wives and ex business partners and soon to be ex voters.
Too bad there is no private island, no modern day Elba to park him.
The only thing that's surprising is that Ms. Swisher seems to be surprised by the latest Trump foray into absurdity.
9
Trump needs to recognize that it is not Google and Twitter that are against him. It is reality that is against him. Yes Donald, there really *are* that many negative comments, tweets, and stories about you out there... all that Google is doing is reporting the fact of the world, showing the reality. Deal with it. Or not... but it is really, really scary that we have a president who thinks the world should 'be nicer' to him. Imagine, just imagine for one second, what would have happened if President Obama had complained about this. Imagine if President Obama had acted like Trump -- how much outrage, anger, and howling commentary Republicans would be spewing about.
385
Trump's complaint is almost certainly false - it is difficult to believe Google would write algorithms to do what he is complaining about. But, of course, that's not Trump's point. The real point is to stir up his base to get them to vote for Republican candidates. Understandable, since the biggest threat he faces is investigations by a Democratic majority House.
12
@Jon Orloff And I wonder if it is because John McCain died, and all focus will be on his funeral and Mr Bush and Mr Obama. It appears to me, from the shores of Australia, that Mr Trump is great at causing chaos and misdirection. Even the trade deal talks with Mexico is just another 'look over here' moment, when they could have easily been done next week. This is all IMHO. Cheers
Trump generally considers all media attention good or bad to benefit him, but for some reason he is disappointed with the number of media outlets that have not chosen to put a positive spin on defrauding the US government via the phony Trump Foundation, violating campaign finance laws, and taking meetings with foreign governments offering assistance with the campaign instead of reporting it to the Feds.
18
Trump sounds more and more like Erdogan everyday. Very scary.
63
The thought that DJT might understand the concept of an algorithm, let alone how one might work, is mildly amusing. And that is unquestionably distressing, especially in a president.
19
Agreed, Trump's accusations about fairness in Google search results are false. But that's not actually why he's upset. Any negative news about Donald Trump drives his ego mad. His conscious mind simply doesn't understand why anyone would fault him about anything. The faux reality he's created for his supporters isn't the work of a genius Machiavellian mind; it's what oozes out of his streaming consciousness, as though he was a tube of toothpaste lying on the ground, cap off, that someone stepped on. When this president speaks/writes extemporaneously you get the real Donald Trump, with all his bumbling madness. No filter. And when various news agencies report on what he's said or written he complains that its fake or he's being taken out of context. The truth is he's a narcissist, who, subconsciously, doesn't like himself. That's why he watches Fox Propaganda. That's why he holds pep rallies. They feed his delicate ego. Real news, doesn't.
73
Most of what Trump says is patently false.
17
Even if a company published only news critical of Trump it is completely legal. I could write and write and write bad news about Donald Trump and it would not be illegal or problematic or in need of "being addressed." Any station or newspaper can make editorials attacking Trump and it would be protected as Free Speech. Trump could write bad things about others and that would also be protected, so the idea that there is something illegal about Google is really CRAZY.
25
DT just needs to Google, Trump Good News Reports, and it is all there, one from 2017, one recent one, and even 3 videos. DT needs a lesson in Googling, so please, can't someone from his staff help him, so he can calm down.
18
Yes, Trump's attack is absolutely ludicrous. Nevertheless, his debased base wants to believe that what he says is true, and the conservative media have played the oppressed victim of a liberal media for decades. Now Trump has added the largest tech companies to his media enemies list.
Yet, his base will continue to use Google, Facebook, Instagram and Amazon just as before. These are basic components of our 21st-century existence and they're not about to give them up.
9
President Trump is not medically capable of being ludicrous.
After struggling with untreated dyslexia for decades, our current President has a great deal on his plate from the related Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and extraordinary fondness of chatting away from the simple truth.
7
Truth hurts, eh, trumpie?
I can imagine the sobbing out loud when the "trump news" search produced truthful stories about the Crybaby In Chief as opposed to the hateful puff pieces put out by alex jones, fox, etc. that trump loves so dearly.
Of course it's Googles fault. That's perfect logic in todays trump/republican world.
27
Um, yeah, but most people are not the President of the United States.
2
These far-right propagandists really ought not to be called "conservatives". It makes them sound like they are traditionalists, or even some kind of moderating influence, and they are no such thing. They are radical right-wing extremists..
171
If you think Google is throttling conservative "thought", try a Google search using a few keywords from any right wing email sent to you by your crazy friends or check out their Facebook posts.
You can see the "Echoplex" (right wing media echo chamber) in full voice, with right wing websites copying each crazy conspiracy theory from one site to another eventually ending up on Breitbart and FoxNews, citing each other for "legitimacy".
Then, somewhere way down the page, look for the Snopes or Politifact references, often showing that the latest "news" is a respin of a story from years earlier and almost certainly from "foreign" sources of questionable credibility.
16
Brilliant piece, Kara. Maybe the only good Trump will ever do is to expose the hypocrisy, falsehoods and dangers of social media - unintentionally, of course.
6
Well stated, Ms. Swisher. Too bad that having your piece run in the NYT is basically preaching to the choir. It's the uneducated lunatic fringe that needs treatment and medicating so badly but will always refuse it.
25
Donald Trump plays the role of weak whiny helpless victim so much I'm amazed that he manages to be sold to conservative voters as tough and independent.
I saw someone in an interview saying that "liberals just don't like that he's his own man" and I thought my god, the *last* thing that liberals think is that Donald Trump is his own man. Most think that he's an absolute stooge for Vladmir Putin, and every action he took when meeting him seemed to prove that.
Now you might argue with whether he is in fact a puppet of Putin's, though if you look at in terms of financing and organized crime, all the evidence points to the fact that he likely is. But even if you disagree with that conclusion, the notion that those on the left see him as "his own man" is patently absurd. We see him as quite the opposite, a typical bully who kowtows to those he sees as more powerful and abuses those he sees as weak, though even there he won't do it directly, as shown in his hilarious phone call pretending that he didn't know that a staffer had been fired
66
Poor little tiny hands. Everyone is out to get Him, and they just aren’t “fair”. More than a touch of paronia, for the supersized Nixon. Seriously.
18
I just googled “News about Trump”; the third hit was Fox “News” (with photos) — and the fifth hit was Trump’s tweets. Perhaps Trump would have had better results if he had not put his own name first in the search term; as usual, and no surprise there. Please note that I put “quotes” around “News” when referring to Fox.
14
I wish the writer could offer up some of the best examples of why this claim is not true (for us un-techies who want to argue it is indeed patently false) but I guess it's more fun to mount an eloquent and angry rant.
4
@Leah Beth Ward
I couldn't agree with you more. Kara Swisher is a smart, incisive thinker, but her pieces in the NYT are the very dreck she complains about -- so when Trump goes low, she goes lower. What a wasted opportunity to understand the facts of this important issue!
2
@Leah Beth Ward You could google it . . . here's the top hit: https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google1.htm
4
And yet again, our insecure little chief executive launches scowls and lies from behind the fortress of his folded arms. Every photo, every time.
The day when we don't hear the words 'president' and 'Trump' together can't come soon enough.
38
Alex Jones an ultranationalist?
Google merits slaps on the wrist
For daring to stop him
Trump don’t want to drop him
A staunch supporter would be missed
The entire World is now on notice
We now have a Paranoid POTUS,
Violence he does threaten
Observers are bettin’
He has more threats in store to goad us,
Exposure of his squalid career
Makes him desperate to save his rear
He’s railing, assailing,
And flagrantly flailing,
Ready to make the U.S. his bier.
He interrupts sleeping with tweets,
Bizarre as the memory meets,
Deep plots, wild threats,
It’s as bad as it gets,
If Dems take too many House seats.
104
@Larry EisenbergYou have a gift for words and the truth
1
"Those who complain loudest about being silenced never ever shut up."
And those who complain about censorship want to censor others.
You can include Fox News and all of the right-wing media among those who claim to be victims of the left-wing, fake news media while being guilty themselves of being biased and of peddling false, misleading, and even paranoid conspiracy stories.
323
Apparently Ms Swisher missed the INTERNAL concerns regarding Bias at Google.
#enoughsaid
2
Google is rigged and the Chinese, not the Russians, hacked Hillary's emails.
This from a man who DARES to criticize "anonymous sources." Trump usually has NO sources (except the voices in his head).
1
@CNM Facebook, actually. But facts are for losers, amirite?