Editor’s Note: All major 2024 candidates polling above one percent nationally across the spectrum — Republicans, independents, and Democrats — have been invited to participate in similar sit-downs. Our offers remain on the table.
FIRST ON MRC: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) joined MRC Founder and President Brent Bozell to speak about how Google is interfering in elections by manipulating its search results to highlight Democratic candidates ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, did not mince words in response to the MRC Free Speech America study revealing that Google buried the websites of GOP candidates. “So, of course, it’s something that is being done to change elections,” DeSantis said, before pledging to take “principled” measures, if elected president, against the potentially illegal censorship to ensure “everybody is treated equally.”
DeSantis appeared to agree with Bozell’s reasoning that Google’s censorship likely constituted illegal campaign contributions. “Is this something that a President DeSantis would be looking at?” Bozell asked DeSantis, to which the governor answered, “Yes, we could. I mean, I think that, you know, you have FEC. You have all this stuff, and those have been ineffective bureaucracies.” He added, “But I think that these guys have gotten a pass. I do think they're using corporate resources to be able to influence elections, and that is just not something that you can do without reporting under our system.”
As revealed by numerous MRC Free Speech America studies, Google has declared war against conservatives, Republicans and pro-lifers. Recently, a study done a week before the first GOP presidential debate revealed that none of the Republican candidates appeared on the first page of Google’s search results. DeSantis suggested that this was not the case many years ago.
“I think for sure, if you look at Google, maybe 15 years ago, and you put in a search and it had something to do with maybe a conservative idea or policy, you would get a lot of conservative websites,” recounted DeSantis, describing the leftist radicalization of Google. “You'd get conservative think tanks. It would be very relevant to what you as a conservative were looking for in that search. [...] So there’s no question that they have changed this in the last 10 years in a way that is skewing very, very left and very, very much anti-Republican.”
The Florida governor’s remarks came in response to Bozell’s questions about Google’s election interference. As recounted by Bozell, an overwhelming majority of users rely on the search results displayed on the first page of Google’s search, where none of the GOP candidates were shown. “What do you say, governor, when I tell you that on the eve of the first presidential debate, when we asked … about presidential campaigns on the eve of your first presidential debate, not one single Republican — including you — appeared on the first page on Google, and yet Joe Biden did, Marianne Williams did,” Bozell remarked.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Google at 650-253-0000 and demand it be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called 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.
