Two-thirds of Republicans think search engines are biased toward the left, according to an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll published Thursday.
The poll found that 67 percent of Republicans surveyed believed search engines like Google are biased to favor liberals, while 22 percent believe they are not biased, and only 9 percent believed there is a bias towards conservatives.
Among independents in the sample, 54 percent saw no bias, while 29 percent saw bias towards the left and 13 percent towards conservatives.
Among Democrats polled, 66 percent saw no bias, 13 percent saw bias towards the left and 15 percent towards conservatives.
{mosads} The poll comes after President Trump last month accused Google of suppressing conservative voices and rigging its algorithm to favor liberals.
“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media,” Trump wrote. “In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out.
“Illegal? 96% of results on ‘Trump News’ are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous,” he added. “Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!”
Google denied Trump’s claim, saying its search results aren’t biased “toward any political ideology.”
The Axios/SurveyMonkey poll was conducted from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3 by surveying almost 2,700 adults in the United States. The poll’s margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.