TechFreedom Panel Criticizes Search Engine Bias Claims

TechFreedom, a Washington (DC)-based think tank, assembled a panel of law professors gathered at the Capitol to discuss search engine bias and recent antitrust cases involving Google.

The recently-established conservative policy group moved the event to the Capitol building to make it more accessible for Senate staffers and private businessmen to attend. Each of the members of the panel came out largely against heavy antitrust regulation of search engines, particularly Google, due to their skepticism of whether fears of search engine bias were warranted. Search engine bias is when a search engine company promotes certain content over other content at the expense of competition. “Google is a source of a significant amount of traffic, but it is possible for new sites to be discovered and to turn into very large things whether Google promotes them or not,” said panelist James Grimmelman, a professor at New York Law School.