Guest post by Joe Hoft
Google was fined a record €2.4bn by EU over search engine results in the EU.
The European Union has handed Google a record-breaking €2.42bn (£2.14bn) fine for abusing its dominance of the search engine market in building its online shopping service, in a dramatic decision that has far-reaching implications for the company.
By artificially and illegally promoting its own price comparison service in searches, Google denied both its consumers real choice and rival firms the ability to compete on a level playing field, European regulators said.
The Silicon Valley giant has 90 days to stop its illegal activities and explain how it will reform its ways or face fines of up to €10.6m a day, which equates to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of its parent company Alphabet.
The ruling in the EU was certainly excessive but not unexpected based on Google’s actions in the US. Google search results on political related topics are always anti-conservative with the first page or two for most any searches showing only results from liberal media outlets with liberal leaning material.
A search of “Trump Russia” on Google shows the first two results from CNN, the next post was from the Guardian – all the results on the first page of results are from far left websites.
A search for “Trump Healthcare” shows the first two stories again from CNN, then the New York Times, then CNBC, etc. Again, all left wing websites are listed on the first page of the search.
Google’s search results should be investigated by the FCC. They are blatantly biased results that favor liberal websites over conservative sites and therefore liberal points of view over conservative. Perhaps the FCC should fine Google $3B to ensure they refine their searches to provide equal search results for conservatives as they do liberals.