Campaigning through the lens of Google: A large-scale algorithm audit of Google searches in the run-up to the Swiss Federal Elections 2023
Abstrak
Search engines like Google have become major sources of information for voters during election campaigns. To assess potential biases across candidates' gender and partisan identities in the algorithmic curation of candidate information, we conducted a large-scale algorithm audit analyzing Google's selection and ranking of information about candidates for the 2023 Swiss Federal Elections, three and one week before the election day. Results indicate that text searches prioritize media sources in search output but less so for women politicians. Image searches revealed a tendency to reinforce stereotypes about women candidates, marked by a disproportionate focus on stereotypically pleasant emotions for women, particularly among right-leaning candidates. Crucially, we find that patterns of candidates' representation in Google text and image searches are predictive of their electoral performance.
Topik & Kata Kunci
Penulis (3)
Tobias Rohrbach
Mykola Makhortykh
Maryna Sydorova
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2025
- Bahasa
- en
- Sumber Database
- arXiv
- Akses
- Open Access ✓