In a Twitter firestorm unleashed at 5:30am local time (7.30pm AEST) Mr Trump wrote that almost all of the news stories he saw were “bad” and that “fake” news was prominent.
He accused Google of being behind this because it is biased against conservative media outlets and controls what the public “can and cannot see”.
Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018
“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. 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?” he tweeted.
He then doubled down on his tweet, saying the social platform is treading on “very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful”.
“Google has really taken advantage of a lot of people and I think that’s a very serious thing and it’s a very serious charge,” Trump told reporters after his Twitter rant. “They better be careful because they can’t do that to people.”
Breaking: Google statement in response to Trump tweet pic.twitter.com/QqMuxQ7gkj
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) August 28, 2018
Google has responded to the outlandish claims, releasing a statement saying their algorithm is engineered to provide the most “relevant” answers without thought to political agenda.
“When users type queries into the Google search bar, our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds,” the company wrote.
“Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results towards any political ideology.”
The search engine said it issues hundreds of improvements to its algorithms each year to ensure searches always yield “high-quality content in response to users’ queries.”
“We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment.”
Mr Trump’s top economic adviser said the White House is “taking a look” at whether the government should regulate Google.
“We’ll let you know,” Larry Kudlow told reporters outside the White House when asked whether Mr Trump believes Google and its search engine should be regulated, The Washington Post reported. “We’re taking a look at it.”
The president also went on to suggest that he had somehow analysed the results on a search for the term “Trump News” and found that almost all of the stories that came up were “left-wing”.
He wrote: “96% of results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. 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’s search results are based on an algorithm which has never been publicly released.
This is the first time Mr Trump has ever claimed Google’s search engine is biased.
It comes after Mr Trump has previously attacked Google, Twitter and Facebook for being “very dishonest media”.
In March, Google announced it would spend more than $A408 million over the next three years to improve its search results following the rise of ‘fake news’.
In July Mr Trump attacked the European Union’s decision to fine Google $US 5.1 billion ($A6.85 billion) for “serious illegal behaviour”.
The European Commission announced the record antitrust fine after an investigation found it had used illegal, anti-competitive behaviour in its smartphone software that had been designed to increase the search giant’s dominance.
“I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google. They truly have taken advantage of the U.S., but not for long!” Trump tweeted at the time.
Google has said it would appeal the fine.