It's tempting to ignore the early morning tweets of a technology-challenged U.S. president. But in the wee hours on Tuesday, Donald Trump posted a vague threat to take action against Google for displaying web search results of legitimate news stories he apparently didn't like.
Trump is wrong on the facts, but his complaints underscore the business threats to tech companies from growing and largely disingenuous complaints that Google and other U.S. internet companies are stifling conservative viewpoints.
It's generally not true that right-leaning voices get an unfair shake on popular internet hangouts. Fox News consistently has among the most widely circulated posts on Facebook. "Tribal posts," or articles and videos that appeal to extremes on the left or right, were among the most shared items on Facebook last year. Google and Facebook computer systems can and do expand the reach of misinformation or outright hoaxes, but there is little evidence that this hurts right-leaning viewpoints.