Conservative leaders publish letter to Google demanding explanation about conservative censorship

Conservative leaders including Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, Media Research Center President L. Brent Bozell, LifeSiteNews.com Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen, and many others have released a letter that they sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and members of Congress demanding an explanation about conservative censorship by the Big Tech giant.

(Article by Cassandra Fairbanks republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)

The letter is in response to a August 14 document leak published by Project Veritas.

Read the letter in full:

August 20, 2019

Mr. Sundar Pichai

Chief Executive Officer

Google Inc.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View, CA 94043

Dear Mr. Pichai,

We are writing today to ask that you provide a detailed response to the August 14 document release by Project Veritas which appears to show that Google blocked conservative websites on one of your news platforms.

When questioned before Congress in December of last year about whether your company manipulated its search results, you unequivocally denied it.

In March, a study by Robert Epstein identified pro-liberal bias in Google search results that helped flip three Orange County, CA, congressional districts in the 2018 midterm elections. Nationwide, Epstein found the results may have influenced 4.6 million undecided voters.

In April, the Daily Caller reported that Google’s Trust and Safety team manually manipulated various search features to exclude a number of conservative websites including the American Spectator, Gateway Pundit and Conservative Tribune.

In June, video leaked of a Google manager claiming the company was training its algorithms to prevent the 2016 election outcome from happening again.

Now we have learned that a Google app was blocking conservative websites including The Daily Caller, NewsBusters, Rush Limbaugh, and many more.

And the August 14 document leak also explained how the “Twiddler” system lets Google/YouTube workers rank search results based upon what your companies want emphasized or de-emphasized. Manipulated topics included pro-life advocacy along with several political and conservative organizations, like The Heritage Foundation.

Senator Ted Cruz attempted to get to the bottom of at least some of these instances during a July Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, but the Google representative dodged most of the questioning. It seems that in these, and other cases that have come to light in recent years, Google’s strategy seems to be to say as little as possible and hope that everyone moves on from the story.

In addition to providing an explanation for the past incidents that have already been brought to light, we demand to know what policies, programs, algorithms or any other business practices are, or have been in place to censor conservative content, and we call on you to disclose them and eliminate them immediately. If there are none currently in place, then we want your public commitment there will be none in the future. Further, we want to know what steps Google is taking to ensure it will not happen again.

Please provide your prompt response. We will publish your response or call attention to your lack thereof.

 

Sincerely,

L. Brent Bozell

Founder and President

Media Research Center

 

Morton Blackwell

Chairman

Weyrich Lunch

 

Byron Schlommach

Director

1889 Institute

 

Lady Brigitte Gabriel

Founder and Chairman

ACT for America

Tim Wildmon

President

American Family Association

 

Jon Schweppe

Director of Policy and Government Affairs

American Principles Project

 

Mark Fitzgibbons

President of Corporate Affairs

America Target Advertising, Inc.

 

Gary Bauer

CEO and President

American Values

 

John Hinderaker

President

Center of the American Experiment

 

David N. Bossie

President

Citizens United

 

Penny Nance

CEO and President

Concerned Women for America

 

The Honorable George K. Rasley, Jr.

Managing Editor

ConservativeHQ.com

 

James Nolan, Esq.

President

Crossroads Pro-Life

 

Adam Brandon

President

Freedom Works

 

Christie Lee McNally

Founder

Free Our Internet

 

Gene Mills

President

Louisiana Family Forum

 

Charles Copeland

President

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

 

John-Henry Westen

Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief

LifeSiteNews.com

 

Frank Lasée

President

The Heartland Institute

 

Justin Danhof

General Counsel

National Center for Public Policy Research
Rod Martin

Founder and CEO

The Martin Organization

 

Kevin D. Freeman

Founder and Chairman

National Security Investment Consultant Institute

 

James O’Keefe

Founder and President

Project Veritas

 

Kristan Hawkins

President

Students for Life of America

Jenny Beth Martin

Honorary Chairman

Tea Party Patriots Action

 

Floyd Brown

Publisher

The Western Journal

 

C. Preston Noell III

President

Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.

 

David Kupelian

Vice President and Managing Editor

WorldNetDaily

 

Craig Shirley

Author

Ronald Reagan Biographer

 

James Martin

Founder and Chairman

60 Plus Association

 

Saulius Anuzis

President

60 Plus Association

 

Allen West

Senior Fellow

Media Research Center

 

Terry Schilling

Executive Director

American Principles Project

 

Steven Ertelt

Editor

LifeNews.com

 

Richard A. Viguerie

Chairman

ConservativeHQ.com

 

Kathleen Patten

President and CEO

American Target Advertising

 

Brian Brown

President

International Organization for the Family

 

Ryan Bomberger

Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer

The Radiance Foundation

 

Tom McCabe

CEO

Freedom Foundation

 

William A. Donahue, Ph.D.

President

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
CC:

Senator Mitch McConnell

Senator Lindsey Graham

Senator Ted Cruz

Senator Joshua Hawley

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Representative Kevin McCarthy

Representative Jim Jordan

Representative Doug Collins

Representative Tulsi Gabbard

Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com