Google Prepares to Brief Congress on Its Role in Election<br />The most prominent example occurred in the days after the election, when the top Google search result for “final election vote count 2016” linked to a story<br />that incorrectly said that Donald J. Trump, who had secured the presidency by winning the Electoral College, had also defeated Hillary Clinton in the popular vote<br />Google has also begun an internal investigation into whether its advertising products<br />and services were used as part of a Russia-linked influence campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the issue.<br />SAN FRANCISCO — Google has become the latest Silicon Valley giant to become entangled in a widening investigation into how online social networks<br />and technology products may have played a role in Russian interference in the 2016 election.<br />Google has, however, long dealt with people trying to game its search engine to highlight misleading<br />information or use its AdSense advertising network to finance eye-catching but false news stories.<br />In April, Google said it had found that about 0.25 percent of its daily search traffic<br />was linking to intentionally misleading, false or offensive information.<br />Google’s search engine, with about a 90 percent market share, is an inescapable part of the internet, so it was no surprise<br />that congressional investigators turned toward the company.
