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Trump warns Twitter and Facebook to 'be careful' after extraordinary attack on Google

'Be careful'

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 29 August 2018 10:08 BST
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U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the news media after meeting with the President of FIFA Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the news media after meeting with the President of FIFA Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington

Donald Trump has warned Twitter and Facebook that they need to "be careful", after he launched an extraordinary attack on Google.

The remarks came after the president accused Google of manipulating search results to make him look bad. The search engine was rigged "so that almost all stories & news is BAD", he tweeted.

He then followed that up with vague threats in Oval Office comments.

"I think Google has really taken advantage of a lot of people, and I think that's a very serious thing. That's a very serious charge," Mr Trump said, adding that Google, Twitter, Facebook and others "better be careful, because you can't do that to people."

Mr Trump claimed that "we have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in. ... So I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook, they're really treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful."

The president has repeatedly attacked companies including Twitter and Facebook and accused them of covering up the voices of him and far-right celebrities such as Alex Jones.

He has suggested that the technology companies are being weighted towards liberal voices and has repeatedly suggested he could intervene to force new regulation on the tech industry.

He has still offered no evidence of bias, but a top adviser said the White House is "taking a look" at whether Google should face federal regulation.

Google pushed back sharply, saying: "We never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment."

The president, who has said he runs on little sleep, jumped on to Twitter before dawn on Tuesday to rehash his recent complaints about alleged suppression of conservative voices and positive news about him.

Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser, told reporters later that the White House is "taking a look" at whether Google searches should be subject to some government regulation.

Additional reporting by agencies

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