Google has the trust of most Americans. Their search engine produces neutral, unbiased, reliable, factual results. That's the perception. But Dr. Epstein tells a different story when it comes to the last presidential election.
He starts out strongly identifying himself with one political side. It's necessary, because otherwise he will be dismissed as purely partisan. His message is bad news for his own party.
That's our state of affairs. Partisanship, manipulation, and outright lying are broadly expected from each side of our political divide.
Sadly, the difficulty of finding out what is true now saps the moral energy of a pretty big segment of "we the people." They throw up their hands and refuse to engage in public debate at all because they have given up.
Google manipulated politically-related searches in 2016. Voters were fed results which delivered huge numbers of votes to Google's preferred political party.
"Democracy, as originally conceived, cannot survive big tech as [it is] currently empowered," says Dr. Epstein. He's right.
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