Last Friday, NorthStar wrote to both Alphabet (GOOG) and Facebook (FB) expressing concern about the June 2017 algorithmic changes to Google’s search functions which were intended to hinder the spread of fake news but have also ensnared traffic that would be referred to legitimate news sites that spread progressive news such as anti-war/pro-peace, pro-democratic, anti-racist matters. As our letters note, Google-referred viewership to many of these legitimate news sources steeply dropped off after the June 25, 2017 changes to Google’s algorithm by 20-67%. Facebook views and traffic have also declined for these news sources.

While NorthStar supports the goal of exterminating fake news, we have urged Alphabet and Facebook to review these algorithmic issues and have requested an explanation of how these companies will remedy these issues to allow Google- and Facebook-referred viewership of these websites to return to levels experienced before the June algorithmic changes. Click on the letter images to below to read our correspondence with each company.