Silicon Valley’s true influence on US elections has been studied and revealed to the public. PJ Media reports:
Dr. Robert Epstein, a psychologist who studies search engine manipulation effects (SEME), has warned that Facebook and Google could shift as many as 12 million votes in the 2018 midterm elections. A new Recode analysis of employee contributions at tech companies in the 2018 cycle revealed a massive disparity in favor of Democrats. Given recent news that Google attempted to interfere in political issues, this should concern Americans.
“If Silicon Valley were only selling shoes, I don’t think we should be worried,” Epstein told PJ Media on Thursday. “But what they are able to do, no industry in the history of humankind has ever been able to do. And therefore we should be very concerned.”
“We have strong evidence of partisanship, and they have access to tools for manipulating opinions and votes that we can’t even see,” the psychologist warned. In September, he published an article in The Epoch Times outlining 10 ways Big Tech can shift millions of votes — without anyone knowing. Google can impact opinion by placing search results, by offering search suggestions, and by censoring results. Facebook can bias its trending box and users’ news feeds, hide content, and send voter registration reminders.
Google employees have even referenced “ephemeral experiences,” showing that they know the kind of power they have. Tech companies have many opportunities to present to users unique experiences that have no record — users cannot trace them after the fact, so it is almost impossible to examine the full effect such content has.
The growing power of big tech has conservatives calling for additional regulations and potentially breaking up the companies.
