Bias or balance? Analyzing stance in Google and Bing results for the 2024 EU Parliament election

Abstract

People frequently use search engines in the lead-up to elections, and the results they encounter can influence their voting decisions. In this study, we analyzed the stances of search results from Google and Bing in Germany related to the 2024 European Parliament elections, as well as the types of sources presented to users. We collected 760 search results for 38 political queries and had jurors assess their stances, with each result being evaluated by five jurors. The findings reveal that public authority and journalistic pages dominate the search results, while political party pages are the least represented source category. Furthermore, we found that Google and Bing predominantly display neutral search results, with neutral stances being more common in Google than in Bing. Additionally, in both search engines, search results that indicate a political leaning tend to align more closely with left-leaning parties than with right-leaning ones. While acknowledging that the findings may be influenced by how the queries were formulated, the results highlight the importance of using multiple search engines to access diverse political viewpoints. They also raise questions about whether both agreeing and disagreeing results should be displayed for controversial topics.