On Thursday, Google introduced a fact-checking feature intended to show whether major news stories are reporting facts or saying things that aren’t true.
The process Google is using takes a two-pronged approach: looking at actual markup in the source code and detecting if the page follows the commonly accepted criteria for fact-checks, according to Business Insider.
Although the United States presidential election was not mentioned in the rollout, Business Insider feels that politics will likely be the focus of fact-checking for the time being. An Edelman Trust Barometer survey reported that more than 60 percent of those surveyed trusted Google for news more than they trust other news outlets, even those featured on Google.
Richard Gringas, Google’s head of news, wrote in a blog post, “We’re excited to see the growth of the fact-check community and to shine a light on its efforts to divine fact from fiction, wisdom from spin,” The Verge reported.
Critics point out that Google has been accused of its own share of bias and may not be completely objective in its fact-checking efforts. SourceFed has recently accused Google of manipulating autocomplete to influence people’s opinions and searches about Hillary Clinton, attempting to lead people away from searching negative terms about her.
In the YouTube video below, Matt Lieberman of SourceFed examined how Google’s autocomplete function chose terms like "Hillary Clinton crime reform" over "Hillary Clinton crimes" even though many more people were searching the latter.
If bias does indeed exist within Google's search algorithm as some have claimed, its fact-check feature could contribute to a monumental swing in public opinion as well. Sputnik News suggests that Google’s alleged bias may amount to as many as 3 million votes in the upcoming election, even before the fact-checking feature goes live.