Digital Gatekeepers: Google's Role in Curating Hashtags and Subreddits

TL;DR

This paper examines how Google, as a digital gatekeeper, influences social media content visibility by systematically promoting or suppressing certain hashtags and subreddits, thereby shaping public discourse.

Contribution

It reveals systematic biases in Google's curation practices, highlighting their impact on social media narratives and user access to diverse content.

Findings

Google suppresses content related to explicit material, conspiracies, ads, and cryptocurrencies.

Google promotes content with higher engagement metrics.

Search results show consistent bias in content visibility.

Abstract

Search engines play a crucial role as digital gatekeepers, shaping the visibility of Web and social media content through algorithmic curation. This study investigates how search engines like Google selectively promotes or suppresses certain hashtags and subreddits, impacting the information users encounter. By comparing search engine results with nonsampled data from Reddit and Twitter/X, we reveal systematic biases in content visibility. Google's algorithms tend to suppress subreddits and hashtags related to sexually explicit material, conspiracy theories, advertisements, and cryptocurrencies, while promoting content associated with higher engagement. These findings suggest that Google's gatekeeping practices influence public discourse by curating the social media narratives available to users.