Google Prepares to Brief Congress on Its Role in Election
The most prominent example occurred in the days after the election, when the top Google search result for “final election vote count 2016” linked to a story
that incorrectly said that Donald J. Trump, who had secured the presidency by winning the Electoral College, had also defeated Hillary Clinton in the popular vote
Google has also begun an internal investigation into whether its advertising products
and services were used as part of a Russia-linked influence campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the issue.
SAN FRANCISCO — Google has become the latest Silicon Valley giant to become entangled in a widening investigation into how online social networks
and technology products may have played a role in Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Google has, however, long dealt with people trying to game its search engine to highlight misleading
information or use its AdSense advertising network to finance eye-catching but false news stories.
In April, Google said it had found that about 0.25 percent of its daily search traffic
was linking to intentionally misleading, false or offensive information.
Google’s search engine, with about a 90 percent market share, is an inescapable part of the internet, so it was no surprise
that congressional investigators turned toward the company.