Google propped up links to the disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and its smears against Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, even after its scathing indictment on Tuesday, the Media Research Center found.
Google is standing by the SPLC, pushing the organization’s assaults on the good names of prominent figures such as Miller. In a search for Miller’s name, Google prominently displayed a link to the SPLC’s “extremist files” profile on him. As per usual, Google left searchers a preview of the article, which included SPLC’s claim that Miller is “credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump.” MRC researchers first discovered Google’s penchant for propping up SPLC’s propaganda seven months ago. However, even on the heels of a fraud scandal SPLC is allegedly wrapped up in, Google appears to be an SPLC stan.
MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider blasted the search giant for enabling the SPLC’s attacks. “Yesterday, the nation found out that the SPLC funds hate, to the point of giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Charlottesville organizer. Now we know that Google boosts hatred too, shoving this rat’s nest of hateful profiles into users’ faces to smear good men and women. Helping the SPLC go after nine thought leaders and organizations is a pattern,” Schneider said.
SPLC’s “extremist file” on Miller, which Google decided to elevate as its second search result, continues to claim that Miller has an “extremist agenda,” promotes white nationalism and engages in “fearmongering” and “xenophobia.” The SPLC hit piece appeared under one of Google’s “Top stories” from the leftist The Daily Beast. The outlet attacked Miller’s wife in an article, headlined “Katie Miller Loses It at Kid’s Entertainer Exposing ICE.” Google also featured an MS Now video labeling Miller the “‘Engine behind the fear’” in its “Top stories.”
Additionally, Google twice elevated the highly negative Wikipedia page on Miller, placing it as a top search result immediately after the SPLC mention.
The results of this particular search have changed little since MRC researchers busted Google for highlighting the same Wikipedia page and SPLC profile, alongside leftist coverage bashing Miller seven months ago. Google even picked an attack from The Daily Beast as the number one story on both occasions.
Google continues to stand by the SPLC even after a grand jury in Alabama indicted the SPLC on Tuesday for “11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.” In addition to these charges, the grand jury indictment accuses the SPLC of sending millions of dollars to members of hate groups, including over $270,000 to one of the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.
The indictment, however, did not stop Google from featuring vicious attacks from the SPLC on the first page of results for Miller, as well as other people and groups targeted by the organization.
Google enthroned SPLC propaganda as the very first result in searches for Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik and Gays Against Groomers. SPLC’s article on Raichik outrageously accused her of a “disinformation campaign that mobilizes right-wing extremist groups in violent attacks against LGBTQ+ people, spaces and events, as well as against doctors, hospitals, librarians, libraries, teachers and schools.”
Users searching for Moms for Liberty were similarly treated to an SPLC page informing that the group’s members were supposedly using social media to “advance a conspiracy propaganda, and spread hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.”
Google also prominently featured an SPLC page tarring Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh for "perpetuating the notion of anti-white racism, which is grounded in white supremacy,” despite the existence of widespread diversity, equity, and inclusion discrimination.
Similarly, Google highlighted a nine-part SPLC series of stories against podcast host and retired Navy intelligence officer Jack Posobiec, including two that described him as a “Neo-Nazi Collaborator” in the headline.
The search giant additionally took hits at Alliance Defending Freedom, an “SPLC DESIGNATED HATE GROUP,” which the organization denigrated for offenses like protecting religious liberty. SPLC pages applying this “HATE GROUP” smear appeared in similar Google searches for the American College of Pediatricians and the Family Research Council.
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.
Methodology: On April 22, MRC researchers utilized Google Search, searching for the terms “Stephen Miller,” “Jack Posobiec,” “Chaya Raichik,” “Matt Walsh,” “Alliance Defending Freedom,” “American College of Pediatricians,” “Family Research Council,” “Gays Against Groomers,” and “Moms for Liberty.” MRC Researchers conducted these searches using the Brave web browser and a VPN to minimize the impacts of past searches and cookies. MRC researchers then analyzed the results for apparent bias.
