Google manually blacklisting right-wing sites, leaked documents show

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Google manually blacklists right-wing websites from certain areas of its platform, according to leaked documents published Tuesday.

“The deceptive_news domain blacklist is going to be used by many search features to filter problematic sites that violate the good neighbor and misrepresentation policies,” the document says, as reported by The Daily Caller.

The blacklist includes right-wing sites American Spectator, Conservative Tribune, and Gateway Pundit.

“The purpose of the blacklist will be to bar the sites from surfacing in any Search feature or news product. It will not cause a demotion in the organic search results or de-index them altogether,” the document says.

The blacklist outlined by the document removes certain websites from news searches and other promotional places on the platform, but not from organic searches.

A Google spokesperson responded to the Washington Examiner with a statement denying that blacklisting had any political motivation.

“We do not manually determine the order of any search result, nor do our algorithms or policies attempt to make any judgment on the political leanings of a website. Our Google News inclusion policies are publicly available online. They provide guidelines on content and behaviors for matters like sponsored content, deceptive practices, and more,” the spokesperson said. “Sites that do not adhere to these policies are not eligible to appear on news surfaces or in information boxes in Search. These policies do not impact the way these sites appear in organic blue-link Google Search results.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified last December before the House Judiciary Committee on concerns about political bias in his company. He denied that his company attempted to suppress conservative viewpoints in its search algorithms.

A former Google employee alleged in a lawsuit filed last year that the company blacklisted conservative employees.

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