Sen. Cotton wants anti-trust investigation of Google

Breitbart:
Exclusive – Sen. Tom Cotton Presses DOJ to Investigate Google over Potential Antitrust Violations

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Cotton wrote to Barr that Google dominates search volume, citing a report from Business Insider on how the Silicon Valley powerhouse currently has 90 percent of online searches worldwide conducted through its platform. He noted that while the mere fact Google is engaged in “monopolistic behavior” is troubling and warrants Justice Department action, what is “even more alarming” is the fact that Google is using that power for political goals.
“More than ​90% of global searches​ ​are conducted through Google’s search engine, suggesting that Google has a monopoly of internet searches by any objective standard,” Cotton wrote. “While monopolistic behavior alone should warrant Department action, it’s even more alarming that reports suggest Google is using that monopoly to achieve political goals and influence American elections.”
The next paragraph of Cotton’s letter to Barr notes how Google CEO Sundar Pichai has testified that his platform did not manipulate search results for political purposes, but then cites a Breitbart News report on leaked internal documents from inside Google that demonstrate it did exactly that.
“In December 2018, Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified before Congress that Google did not ‘manually intervene’ ​on any search results,” Cotton wrote. “A source from Google, however, later reported to a news outlet that YouTube (owned by Google) ​manipulated search results​ ​related to abortion after a left-wing journalist complained about the prominence of pro-life videos on YouTube. After the journalist’s inquiry, the search results were manipulated to feature more content supporting abortion from left-wing media.”
Cotton also points to Breitbart News and Wall Street Journal investigations that demonstrate how Google is manipulating its systems to block conservative media using blacklists.
“A source from Google has also revealed that Google uses ​’blacklists’ ​and these lists are used to to block conservative media from showing up in ​‘featured snippets,’” Cotton wrote. “​These sites are further limited from showing up in search placements as Google considers them ​‘fringe domains.’ ​Even where a user searches for an exact headline of an article that appears on a blacklisted website, they still may not find it.”
Cotton also cites a study from noted expert Dr. Robert Epstein published in 2015 demonstrating that Google’s actions could significantly affect the outcome of elections.
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Sine the 2016 election Google has been manipulating search results on conservative sites like this one.  In many instances, the hits on posts have been reduced by over 50 percent.  When you consider that Google actually hosts this site, it looks like it is willing for forego ad revenue to limit its reach.

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