Last night, Google was accused of bias after an analysis revealed that it prioritized news pieces from left-leaning publishers over those from right-leaning publishers.
The Daily Mail looked at which publications’ articles came up in the top 11 most searched terms about Boris Johnson last week.
The Guardian was quoted 38 times in the search results, while The Independent was cited 14 times, according to the survey. The Daily Telegraph, on the other hand, was only mentioned four times, the Daily Express three times, and MailOnline twice.
BBC News, which has been accused of anti-Johnson bias by some Conservatives, came up 24 times, with nine more hits for other BBC sites.
The analysis, according to Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, confirmed what many had suspected. She also pledged that a measure would be introduced soon to address “unfair bias and distortion.”
‘I’ve spoken to Google about the issue of prejudice and algorithms distorting democratic content and opinion,’ she continued. ‘They promised to get back to me with proof that this isn’t the case, which I still haven’t received.’
‘The Mail’s proof is quite conclusive, and it confirms what many people have suspected all along.’
‘In the upcoming digital competition bill, we’re looking at how we can address unfair bias and distortion.’
Google ranks news stories on its search page based on an algorithm developed by the company, rather than on the number of hits they receive.
This means that the top stories on the list aren’t necessarily the most popular, but rather those that Google considers to be more relevant and authoritative.
The survey looked at the most popular online search terms for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, including ‘Boris Johnson no confidence’, ‘Boris Johnson confidence vote’, and ‘Lee Mack Boris Johnson.’
Last but not least, there was a reference to comedian Lee Mack’s joke on Partygate at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee event on Saturday.
Google Trends, the company’s analytic service, revealed the top searched phrases for the week ending June 8.
In the United Kingdom, each of these terms was then entered into Google Search. The total number of results returned for each source was totalled up, yielding 38 for The Guardian. Second was BBC News on channel 24, followed by The Independent on channel 14 and Sky News on channel 13.
ITV News received a score of six, while Wikipedia, the Financial Times, the Associated Press news agency, and the US-based Public Broadcasting Service each received five.
Despite MailOnline’s considerable popularity, the last group received more than twice as many Google search results in the UK as the former.
The Daily Telegraph, CNN, and a small publication called BBC Learning English all returned four results.
Three results were returned by the Daily Express, the Washington Post, and Parliament.uk. MailOnline and Metro were tied for second place with Facebook, the Government’s gov.uk website, and Britannica, with two each. The Times and the Daily Mirror each obtained one search result, while the Evening Standard and Sun in London received no results at all.
The study included a period when the Prime Minister was facing a no-confidence vote by Conservative MPs and all media channels were carrying several stories on him every day.