A poll conducted by the IFOP pollster exclusively for Sputnik showed on Thursday that the majority of residents in such Western states as Germany, Italy, France, the US and the United Kingdom believe that Google and Facebook manipulate information in favor of a particular political point of view.
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"Google search results are completely biased. A person sees results generated based on a massive amount of information Google holds on its users: who you are, what you like. Search results are different depending on who's using the service," the expert told Sputnik.
"Social networks, including Facebook, can definitely be used to manipulate their audience. A person's social network history helps build the user's profile and thus show this person a certain type of information from a certain viewpoint, based on what sort of reaction is supposed to be triggered," Schou said.
"Each of us has his own ‘personal' Facebook. What we see in the news feed depends on what we searched before, who our friends are, which posts we like. Of course, this is partly used for both commercial and political purposes. The latter is what I believe is a serious problem," Schou explained.
"I don't know how the executives are going to solve this problem. I can only say this is a difficult task that requires a complex approach, addressing all aspects of social networking," he concluded.
The poll conducted for Sputnik also showed that young people agreed that Google and Facebook manipulate information more than people age 35 or older.