Google says it does not change search results after Hong Kong anthem row

HONG KONG - Google said on Thursday it does not manipulate search results, after Hong Kong’s government said the tech giant had refused its demand to bury a popular protest song.

“Google handles billions of search queries every day, so we build ranking systems to automatically surface relevant, high quality, and helpful information,” the tech giant told AFP in response to a query about the anthem request. Hong Kong leader John Lee said this week that Google had a “moral obligation” to respect a country’s national anthem, while the Chinese foreign ministry said internet companies “have a duty to deliver correct information to the public”.

Both Mr Tang and Mr Lee have argued that Google search results can be manipulated, citing the placement of ads and the deletion of certain results to comply with privacy laws in the European Union. Hong Kong-based data scientist Wong Ho-wa told AFP that the government’s demands could be met in theory “if changes are forcibly made” but it would be extremely complicated to modify the whole search engine structure.

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