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Trump says Google, Twitter, and Facebook are on ‘troubled territory’ and ‘better be careful’

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President Donald Trump has made more veiled threats toward Google and other web platforms, after tweeting this morning that Google had “rigged” its search results to suppress positive news about him. Trump told reporters during an Oval Office press meeting that Google, Facebook, and Twitter were “treading on very, very troubled territory,” and that they had “better be careful, because you can’t do that to people.” Trump stopped short of describing any specific political consequences, but he asserted, “I think Google is really taking advantage of a lot of people, and I think that’s a very serious thing, and it’s a very serious charge.”

Trump made his original remarks on Twitter early this morning, apparently based on a loosely reported PJ Media article claiming that Google overrepresented liberal outlets in Google News. He didn’t give any more factual details in this afternoon’s response to a reporter, which is printed below in full.

I think Google is really taking advantage of a lot of people, and I think that’s a very serious thing, and it’s a very serious charge. And I think what Google and what others are doing, if you look at what’s going on at Twitter, if you look at what’s going on in Facebook, they better be careful, because you can’t do that to people. You can’t do it. We have tremendous, we have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in, and you just can’t do that. So I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory, and they have to be careful. It’s not fair to large portions of the population, okay?

Google said earlier today that “we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment.” Trump didn’t explain exactly what complaints he had against Facebook and Twitter, although he’s previously (and spuriously) called Twitter’s moderation policy illegal, and a number of conservative lawmakers have accused Facebook of deliberately making conservative viewers’ pages less popular — again, without much evidence. Trump hasn’t apparently followed through with previous claims that he would investigate complaints about social media platforms like Twitter, but his remarks could heighten the tension as Facebook, Google, and Twitter prepare to appear before Congress next month.



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