Trump fuels conspiracy theory that Big Tech is suppressing positive news

The 'evidence' that Google is suppressing news comes from analysis by a single reporter

Donald Trump, former host of The Apprentice (US edition), has described a new conspiracy theory that puts the blame squarely on Big Tech.

Right-wing media (we use the term loosely) in the USA has recently begun to talk about the suppression of conservative voices in preference of more progressive results, and Trump played into the theory this morning on Twitter.

The ex-reality TV star accused Google of "showing only the Fake New [sic] Media" and search results being "RIGGED", so that "almost all stories & news is [sic] BAD".

He added that "96% of results on "Trump News" are from National Left-Wing Media", calling the trend "very dangerous".

The statistic appears to come from just one source, a conservative site called PJ Media, which was originally set up to use stories from ‘citizen journalists', rather than relying on ‘mainstream media' professionals. It is based on the anecdotal evidence of a single reporter, who Googled the term ‘multiple times' on different computers.

The reporter determined the political bias of the sites appearing in results using a chart by former CNN journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

Trump's tweets will only serve to fuel the conspiracy and turn more of his base against the (again, professional) mainstream media in favour of unaccountable sites like Twitchy.

It's also unclear just what the actor-turned-politician means by his claim that the situation "will be addressed", as he has a habit of making Twitter promises that he can't keep.

As to the accuracy of the claims, they're difficult to judge. Google's search algorithms are incredibly complex and always changing, although we do know that it will return results that it thinks that you will find most useful - which has led to accusations of an echo chamber effect in the past.