Google search engines’ results are boosting China’s preferred narratives about COVID-19’s origins and human rights abuses, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution and the Alliance for Securing Democracy.
The study found Google News and YouTube were far more likely to spread Chinese state-run media than Google’s main search engine in response to queries about COVID-19 and Xinjiang, a northwestern province in China and the location of alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
