When not threatening to out Bill Clinton’s infidelities, Donald Trump is floating conspiracy theories. We’ve heard Trump argue that the current election is rigged, but the Republican presidential nominee is now accusing Google of treating him unfairly and favoring rival Hillary Clinton.
On Wednesday, Trump accused Google of purposely suppressing bad information about Clinton, which he said is hurting his chances of winning the presidency. This bold claim comes after a poll conducted by Google Consumer Surveys for Independent Journal Review showed he is ahead of Clinton in the poll, 45.7 percent to 44 percent. Even though he is leading in this perspective poll, Trump casually mentioned he would be farther ahead if it weren’t for those pesky algorithms:
“A new post-debate poll that just came out, the Google poll, has us leading Hillary Clinton by 2 points nationwide. And that’s despite the fact that Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton.”
Trump did not elaborate on his claims, but he’s not the only entity to question Google’s practices regarding Clinton. Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik News said Google is creating “biased search suggestions,” which they say could impact voters’ feelings. And in July, a viral video insinuated that Google was manipulating its searches for Clinton, but representatives from the search engine put a stop to those claims: “Google autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how autocomplete works.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has publicized a conspiracy theory about an opponent, and it surely won’t be the last. Will we see another conspiracy theory down the line? Perhaps. We’re through the looking-glass here, people.