This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/us/politics/google-trump-clinton.html

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Donald Trump Pushes Debunked Theory That Google Suppressed Rival’s Bad News Donald Trump Pushes Debunked Theory That Google Suppressed Rival’s Bad News
(about 13 hours later)
WAUKESHA, Wisc. — While seeking to publicize his success in unscientific online polls after the presidential debate on Monday, Donald J. Trump on Wednesday promoted an unsubstantiated and debunked conspiracy theory about Google suppressing negative news in search results about his opponent.WAUKESHA, Wisc. — While seeking to publicize his success in unscientific online polls after the presidential debate on Monday, Donald J. Trump on Wednesday promoted an unsubstantiated and debunked conspiracy theory about Google suppressing negative news in search results about his opponent.
“The Google poll has us leading Hillary Clinton by two points nationwide, and that’s despite the fact that Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Trump told a crowd here, referring to an Independent Journal Review-Google Consumer Surveys poll. “How about that?”“The Google poll has us leading Hillary Clinton by two points nationwide, and that’s despite the fact that Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Trump told a crowd here, referring to an Independent Journal Review-Google Consumer Surveys poll. “How about that?”
The conspiracy theory began with a video from the conservative outlet SourceFed that went viral this year, and quickly garnered headlines on conservative news sites like Breitbart and Infowars. The conspiracy theory began with a video from the online outlet SourceFed that went viral this year, and quickly garnered headlines on conservative news sites like Breitbart and Infowars.
The video featured someone selectively testing Google’s autocorrect feature, claiming that it was not showing results like “Hillary Clinton criminal” when “Hillary Clinton cr,” was typed in, while other search engines, like Bing, returned different results.The video featured someone selectively testing Google’s autocorrect feature, claiming that it was not showing results like “Hillary Clinton criminal” when “Hillary Clinton cr,” was typed in, while other search engines, like Bing, returned different results.
The theory was debunked quickly by numerous news outlets, which pointed to selective examples and a basic misunderstanding of how Google’s algorithm worked. Rhea Drysdale, the chief executive of Outspoken Media, a digital company that specializes in search engine optimization, laid out the examples in a Medium post.The theory was debunked quickly by numerous news outlets, which pointed to selective examples and a basic misunderstanding of how Google’s algorithm worked. Rhea Drysdale, the chief executive of Outspoken Media, a digital company that specializes in search engine optimization, laid out the examples in a Medium post.
Google did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Wednesday, but when the conspiracy theory first made headlines, a company spokeswoman told CNN, “Our autocomplete algorithm will not show a predicted query that is offensive or disparaging when displayed in conjunction with a person’s name. Google autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how autocomplete works.”Google did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Wednesday, but when the conspiracy theory first made headlines, a company spokeswoman told CNN, “Our autocomplete algorithm will not show a predicted query that is offensive or disparaging when displayed in conjunction with a person’s name. Google autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how autocomplete works.”
The fervor surrounding the conspiracy theory died down in less than a week, after news outlets provided their fact checks, but this month, Sputnik News, a website run by the Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya, resurrected the study, prompting more headlines from Breitbart, the website once led by Stephen K. Bannon, the chief executive of Mr. Trump’s campaign.The fervor surrounding the conspiracy theory died down in less than a week, after news outlets provided their fact checks, but this month, Sputnik News, a website run by the Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya, resurrected the study, prompting more headlines from Breitbart, the website once led by Stephen K. Bannon, the chief executive of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
Mr. Trump’s comment sounded like an off-the-cuff line, and he has been known to float falsehoods frequently in his stump speech, often in riffs of his own. But the conspiracy was in the first paragraph of his prepared remarks for delivery.Mr. Trump’s comment sounded like an off-the-cuff line, and he has been known to float falsehoods frequently in his stump speech, often in riffs of his own. But the conspiracy was in the first paragraph of his prepared remarks for delivery.