Googling oneself can turn up some pretty astounding results: abandoned MySpace pages, uncomfortable snapshots we didn't know existed, and perhaps "National Left-Wing Media."
The latter is apparently what President Trump found when he searched the term "Trump News," per a Tuesday morning tweet. And now Trump's personal qualm with Google search results is sparking some form of federal inquiry, The Washington Post reports.
On Tuesday, Trump double-tweeted his dismay with finding that "96 percent of (Google) results on 'Trump News' are from National Left-Wing Media." It's not clear how Trump's seemingly anecdotal evidence produced that number, though it may have come from a right-wing blog. Nevertheless, the president declared that lack of "Republican/Conservative & Fair Media" means Google's results page is "RIGGED," and he went so far to question if it was "illegal."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow took Trump's tweeted promise to address this "serious situation" a step further. When asked if Trump thinks Google should be regulated, Kudlow told reporters Tuesday that "we're taking a look at it," per the Post. Stock in Google parent company Alphabet promptly sunk in pre-market trading, Bloomberg's Lisa Abramowicz pointed out in a tweet.
As The Toronto Star's Daniel Dale points out, the president's complaint appears to be rooted in the fact "that the news tab for Trump brings up ... news sites ... rather than right-wing opinion sites." In a statement, Google said it strives to "make sure [users] receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds."
If only we could all call out Google for reupping our embarrassing Facebook post from 2008.
-
Nicola Sturgeon's memoir: making the personal politicalTalking Point Former Scottish first minister attempts to set record straight in 'Frankly' but does she leave more questions than answers?
-
Trump-Putin: would land swap deal end Ukraine war?Today's Big Question Ukraine ready to make 'painful but acceptable' territorial concessions – but it still might not be enough for Vladimir Putin
-
The truth about sunscreenThe Explainer The science behind influencer claims that sun cream is toxic
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
