How ‘Googling it’ Can Send Conservatives Down Secret Rabbit Holes of Alternative Facts
Based on the exact words you type into the search bar, “Google is giving you drastically different information”
By Abby Ohlheiser
Type “Russia collusion” into a Google search, and the search engine will try to guess the next word you’ll type. The first of those is “delusion.”
Accept the suggestion, and you’ll find yourself in a conservative rabbit hole. The first result is a New York Post opinion piece with the headline, “Democrats, get set to lose your ‘collusion’ delusions.” The next result, from the conservative site “American Greatness,” reads “Meowing Media Fuel Mass Delusion of Russian Collusion.” Several other results on the first page — including one from a bodybuilding forum — come from other conservative outlets approvingly quoting an apparent catalyst of the phrase’s popularity: Roger Stone, speaking on Fox News.
Google auto-completes search terms based on popularity, so it’s likely that “Russia collusion delusion” is driven by people turning to Google to learn more about Stone’s phrase.
For Francesca Tripodi, a postdoctoral scholar at Data & Society and assistant professor in sociology at James Madison University…
