Technology giants Alphabet Inc (ticker: GOOG, GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (FB) are pushing back against an unsubstantiated allegation by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that the companies, as well as Twitter ( TWTR), are suppressing unflattering news about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
On Twitter, Trump accused the companies of downplaying last week’s revelation that the FBI is reviewing newly discovered messages that could be connected to its investigation of Clinton’s private email server that she used while Secretary of State.
“Wow, Twitter, Google and Facebook are burying the FBI criminal investigation of Clinton,” he wrote. “Very dishonest media!”
Wow, Twitter, Google and Facebook are burying the FBI criminal investigation of Clinton. Very dishonest media!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2016
Trump made the claim even though the renewed FBI probe was the top result on Google News on Sunday, and despite both the election and the Clinton probe being among Twitter’s list of “featured tweets” over the weekend. Facebook’s news feed has curated links that are influenced by the user’s Facebook activity and their connections’ activities.
The companies hold a sizable influence in the media marketplace. Facebook has more than 1 billion active users and Twitter has more than 313 million active users. According to a Pew Research Center study, more than six in 10 Americans receive their news from social media.
A Google source told Mashable that Google News does not adjust rankings regarding political candidates, and also doesn’t alter rankings of stories to try and change user sentiment. A Facebook spokesperson referred Mashable to a CNN tweet on the subject, where correspondent Brian Stelter attempted to break down what the tweet meant, pointing to the story trending on these outlets. Twitter failed to respond to Mashable’s request for comment.
Despite Twitter’s prevalence as a medium for sharing news, stock is down about 23 percent on the year, though ticked up slightly Thursday following the announcement its shuttering short-form video service Vine.
While Facebook officials have denied that it is a media company, it launched its “Instant Articles” service in 2015 that allows any publisher to use the platform. Its launch included nine major media companies, including NBC News and The New York Times, and allows publishers to embed advertising in Facebook-published articles and pocket the revenue.
The company also came under fire earlier this year when it was forced to remove human curation from its trending topics section after it was accused of suppressing some conservative outlets.
“If you look at how we’ve defined ourselves internally for 12 years now, it has been a technology company,” Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “A media company is about the stories that it tells. A technology company is about the tools that it builds. We also realize that we’ve become a significant part of the way a lot of people get information about what’s going on in the world. That comes with a huge responsibility. And it’s one that we take very seriously.”
FB stock is up more than 25 percent on the year, while GOOGL is up about 5 percent.
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Google, Facebook Reject Trump Claims of Bias originally appeared on usnews.com
