Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) ripped search giant Google for abusing its power to exert influence over the minds of Americans.
Schmitt discussed how platforms like Google get away with their rampant bias with Article III Project Founder and President Mike Davis at a Thursday CPAC appearance. Both speakers made plain that a lack of real free market competition lay at the root of Google’s ability and willingness to censor and write off a significant portion of the country, conservatives. Schmitt called for transparency and competition.
“Google is really the ultimate black box,” Schmitt said. “That algorithm? Like if you're a business or whatever, or you're a political candidate, there's a huge difference between you being on page one of the search and page 12 of the search, right? And nobody gets to see the wizard right now, nobody gets to see it.”
Schmitt added, “So I think some of the litigation as relates to Google is really important to sort of bust that up so you have real competition.”
And Google uses this monopoly to bury disfavored sources. A series of MRC Free Speech America studies demonstrated that Google rigged search results about now-President Donald Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 Presidential Race by hiding sources rated “right” or “lean right” by AllSides deep in the search results. After the election, Google continued to rig the search results against Trump’s nominees, providing far more “left” and “lean left” stories in the results. Google repeatedly left many Trump nominees without a single “right” or “lean right” article on the first page of search results for their name.
ICYMI: Unrepentant: Google Continues Campaign Against Trump Nominees
Davis echoed Schmitt’s sentiments, pointing to multiple antitrust lawsuits and lashing out at Google. “Google's the worst of the worst. They're the worst actor,” he declared.
After addressing Google’s “search monopoly,” Davis added, “The bigger problem is Google has an online advertising monopoly, right? They use the money they make with their online advertising monopoly to fund their censorship, all their woke nonsense that they do.”
In the U.S. v. Google 2020 case, Judge Amid P. Mehta found that Google had a monopoly in “general search services” and “general search text ads.” Mehta condemned Google with the damning words, “Google is a monopolist and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.” Google is currently pushing back on a DOJ request that the search giant be forced to sell its Chrome browser.
Earlier in the CPAC discussion, Davis also touched on YouTube, a different Alphabet subsidiary. “If Google [had] competed against YouTube instead of acquired YouTube, there's no chance that Google would be censoring half of America based upon their political viewpoints. Google would be competing with YouTube for conservative users [and] not trying to censor them and I think that's really important to remember,” Davis asserted.
In response to Google’s censorship, Schmitt called for Republicans to pass “structural safeguards” such as forcing Big Tech companies to act as true platforms that don’t censor content rather than censorious publishers if they want to benefit from Section 230’s extensive protections for platforms. Schmitt also called for bureaucrats like those who pressured Big Tech companies to censor Americans to be personally liable to their victims.
Flashback Clip: Sen. Eric Schmitt Slams ‘Direct, Blatant, and Brazen’ Big Tech Censorship at 2023 CPAC
Near the end of their discussion, Davis indicated that antitrust regulation was still coming, warning Big Tech executives that inaugural donations were not a substitute for free market competition or a get-out-of-jail free card for bad behavior.
WATCH MORE: Sen. Schmitt on Fighting Rampant Government Censorship
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
