Google tepidly responds to Trump's allegations of 'rigged' search results

President Trump, inspired by conservative blogs and Fox News, accused Google on Tuesday of skewing search results to prioritize "left-wing media" that criticizes his administration.

He instructed White House officials to "take a look" at the phenomenon, which places prominent news outlets like The New York Times ahead of blogs like Breitbart when users search Google News.

Google responded in a statement insisting that "search is not used to set a political agenda," CNN reports. "We don't bias our results toward any political ideology." The statement may not appease those who worry about "conservative suppression," as Google merely explained its algorithm as prioritizing "high-quality content."

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"We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment," the statement concluded. The explanation didn't seem to prevent immediate fallout — Google parent company Alphabet's stock sunk promptly after White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he'd look at whether the search engine should be regulated.