Nadine Dorries claims big tech firms are ‘too powerful’ and have secret ‘dials’ to control the internet
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries has claimed that big tech firms possess “big dials” which they use to “control what people see and read”.
The ex-Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire wrote in her Daily Mail column on the dangers of “Big Tech” which she claimed is “becoming too powerful in all areas of daily life”.
Dorries, who came second-to-last when she took part in reality TV show I’m A Celebrity in 2012, also claimed Google search results for news stories about politics were from “predominantly left-wing” titles.
She claimed someone had explained it to her by saying: “‘Imagine that in Silicon Valley, they have these big dials. They can turn them up and turn them down at will in order to determine what content has priority when searched.’”
And she continued: “‘‘In doing so, the liberals who populate Silicon Valley can control what people see and read, and ultimately can influence what they think.’”
Dorries also claimed: “Algorithms nudge opinion ever leftwards by ensuring the content people read online is left-leaning.”
The former culture secretary further said that during a meeting with UK Google bosses, she told them she mostly saw “negative news stories in left-leaning publications” when she searched for her name.
One executive, she claimed, showed her different results on his own phone — which was then replicated on her mobile device when she repeated the search, leaving her feeling “foolish”.
But the following day, Dorries wrote: “My team searched my name again and it was back to what we had seen before.”
She added: “Someone obviously had their hand on the Google dial prior to that meeting.”
Her latest claims come after the Tories suffered a significant by-election defeat in her former Mid Beds seat, with a historic swing to Labour of 20.5 per cent, after Dorries failed to step down after announcing she planned to resign as an MP for almost three months.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joked during PMQs that the new Labour MP Alistair Strathern “might actually support me a little bit more than the last one”, in reference to Dorries.
Google has been contacted for any comments by Morning Wire