RESTON, VA – Today, the Media Research Center (MRC) said Congress must hold hearings to investigate Google for possibly trying to fix the presidential election following a bombshell report by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Monday night. The report disclosed a November 9, 2016, email from Google Multicultural Marketing Department head Eliana Murillo describing the company’s “silent donation” to boost Latino voting turnout in the 2016 presidential election.
Google’s effort was designed to aid the Clinton campaign and the results were shared with top Google executives. Murillo was upset Trump won despite Google’s “political power” and her efforts to aid Voto Latino – a left leaning get-out-the-vote organization. She said she was worried that Latino Googlers were “probably hurting right now” and how Donald Trump’s victory was “devastating for our Democratic Latino community.”
This is as unacceptable as it is potentially illegal. Google is far and away the most powerful search engine in the world, and it has incredible power to sway elections. Given this report, complaints about bias in the company’s staffing and other allegations that Google search results are biased, we can no longer ignore this danger.
In addition, Congress must also look at Google’s campaign partners. According to MRC Latino, Google partnered with on-air talent at Univision, a network chaired by top Clinton fundraiser Haim Saban. According to Open Secrets, Saban gave at least $16 million to elect Democrats in 2016.
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The MRC urges Congress to hold extensive hearings to investigate whether misconduct was committed by Google including, but not limited to:
- Federal Election Commission (FEC) violations
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) violations
- Criminal violations that should be investigated by the Department of Justice
“Everyone’s worried about election collusion, only it’s not Russia we should be afraid of. It’s the damn social media – the tech companies,” said Media Research Center President Brent Bozell on Wednesday.
“Google didn’t even show its face when Congress held hearings last week. And guess what? The man who didn’t show – Google CEO Sundar Pichai – was on this email chain and knew about this potentially illegal action. Now we have to wonder if Google also knew this story was going to break and they wanted to hide from it. Congress needs to act, and if Google won’t show up voluntarily, then it needs to use its subpoena power to drag them there,” Bozell stated.
“We have to get to the bottom of this. Can America have free elections if the social media tech companies choose our candidates for us?”
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