The 2020 Internet Trump Takedown Has Begun

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They don’t even try to hide it anymore. The progressive effort to silence conservative views online continues, and it appears that the left is becoming even more brazen in its censorious actions. Google and its subsidiary, YouTube, recently moved against President Trump’s re-election ads on its platform. Could this be one of the ways in which the search engine behemoth seeks to succeed where it failed in 2016?

Google Removes Trump Campaign Ads

CBS News reported on 60 Minutes that more than 300 of President Trump’s political ads were taken down by Google and YouTube over the summer. Yes, that’s right, left-leaning CBS News covered the alleged censoring of conservatives by Google and YouTube. Stranger things have happened.

Reporters discovered the removal of the ads but were unable to uncover the reason behind the mass purge. “We found very little transparency in the transparency report,” they said.

The news outlet launched its investigation into the removal of ads after YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki admitted in an interview that it was taking down Trump’s content. “There are ads of President Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube,” she said, indicating that these ads are accessible in their transparency report.

President Trump and the Republican Party excoriated the two companies for removing the ads, stating that their actions were a “blatant attempt to suppress voter information.” But these companies didn’t target only Trump. They also removed ads from Democratic presidential contenders who are not a part of the establishment. The companies sank the ads of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as well. Interestingly enough, members of the old guard in the Democratic Party still remain untouched.

What’s the Angle?

There are two noteworthy aspects to this story. For starters, Google’s targeting of Trump’s ads is not a surprise; the company has been tamping down right-leaning opinions online for years. Indeed, its attempt to influence the 2016 election was exposed not long ago.

But the notion that it also takes aim at certain figures on the left is revealing. If its actions are any indication, Google might be trying to ensure that a moderate Democrat is elected, which is surprising, considering that many of the company’s leaders are far left. Do they perhaps believe a moderate has a better chance to defeat Trump?

On the other hand, what would CBS News have to gain by exposing Google’s behavior? One would like to think that the outlet is engaging in journalism. It is entirely possible that this is the case, especially since the report did not mention the search engine’s efforts against hard-left anti-establishment Democrats. But in the end, what matters is that Google is intent on making sure it gets its way in 2020, and, even more disturbing, it might have the power to do so.

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Read more from Jeff Charles.