re: Google does not like TigerDroppings - blacklists it!

I’ll address these in reverse:

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There are also plenty of anecdotal examples daily of this stuff

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These examples that may or may not stem from anything political. For example a YouTube personality may be demonetized or a Twitter user banned not because of their political beliefs but their behavior. That is NOT targeting conservatives yet is cited as such regularly.

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Now explain to me the logic of believing an industry staffed overwhelmingly with people of a particular political belief system, with the means to do manipulate information, wouldn't do so to shift the zeitgeist in their preferred direction.

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I’m sure on an individual basis this has happened, and I’m not defending that, but the idea that as a company Google or whoever is thinking up ways to attack conservative thought just is not born out in any kind of meaningful way, yet the right portrays them as one of their boogeymen to keep people like you fearful.

Your second link was behind a paywall so I couldn’t read the whole thing, but was published by WSJ, a right wing media source looking to fan the flames of fear as discussed. Notice the (public portion) simply lists “employees”. How many employees? Which employees? What policies does Google have in place to address partisanship in its algorithms? It could have been 2 janitors for all we know and WSJ, again being a right wing media outlet, has an interest in sensationalizing something like this.

The first link you gave was a lot more interesting.

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Google claims they never did any of the things discussed here, so I'll let you decide whether you believe that, and more importantly, whether you think the discussion was totally worthless since they also claim their systems don't allow manipulation.

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I don’t think the discussion is worthless, and this article at least has some actual peer reviewed data behind it. But as the article itself says, progressive groups have also been targeted so it’s really not accurate to say it’s so much anti-conservatives than it is pro-establishment.

Further, much of the article talks about what Google “can” do and less about what it has done. Regardless I agree with Elizabeth Warren that, on a macro level, we should be having more serious conversations about the role big tech plays in all our lives. The issue I have is the right frequently distorting and lying not only about the focus of this issue but the effects. It’s just another victim play.