Report: The Political Potential for Manipulating Search Engine Results

Google’s ability to influence consumers has been discussed for a while. With millions of people routinely searching the Internet for restaurant suggestions and product reviews, the difference between appearing on the first page or the second page of a search could mean the difference between financial success and losing your business. Thanks to digitalization, a free and fair search algorithm is clearly an important piece of a free and fair market.

In a recent political opinion study conducted by the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology – a nonprofit based in Vista, California, researchers found that search rankings could significantly influence election results as well, without voters even noticing the manipulation. Researchers targeted undecided voters in the national Lok Sabha election in India from April 2^nd to May 12^th. Each undecided voter was randomly assigned to a group in which search results favored Gandhi, Kejriwal, or Modi – the election’s three favorites. The study’s results are surprising and significant.

The percentage increase in voters who favored their prescribed candidate was 12.2%; over 99% of the study’s participants did not appear to have any awareness that they were receiving highly biased search results, and 2.9% was the threshold win margin below which control of an election might be guaranteed, according to the study. In other words, if a national, two-candidate election would be won by a margin of less than 2.9% without manipulating search rankings, then the election’s outcome could be controlled through manipulating search results. Further, nearly everyone in the study did not even recognize the manipulation of their Internet feeds.

If economic consequences of biased search results are important, political consequences are equally so. This study only targeted 2,096 people. What if the entire American voting population was exposed to this type of bias? Manipulation to that extent is nigh impossible, but the political possibilities of this bias must be taken seriously. The study’s authors suggest the establishment of an “equal-time” equivalent for the Internet – similar to the rule for radio and television broadcasters that guarantees equal opportunities for both political candidates to promote themselves on American airwaves.

Read the brief report and decide for yourself, but the research will hopefully spark some conversation over how to protect our electorate from undue manipulation.