As Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and other right-wing commentators sour on Google, some push DuckDuckGo as an alternative, arguing Google suppresses COVID-19 results
The embrace by some conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists is part of a broader effort to shift people away from Big Tech. Tweets: @stuartathompson , @dancow , @jessepesta , @alicetiara , @dancow , @dancow , @stuartathompson , @stuartathompson , @lyman_brian , @carnage4life , @jeffjarvis , @zachreports , @stuartathompson , @pt , @stuartathompson , @stuartathompson , @robpegoraro , @stuartathompson , @dankennedy_nu , @stevekovach , and @glenngabe Tweets: Stuart A. Thompson / @stuartathompson : i reported on privacy before coming to disinfo, so that meant using DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine loved by privacy activists. so it was odd when I entered disinfo spaces and found that they, too, seemed to use DuckDuckGo. here's what's up: https://www.nytimes.com/... Dan Nguyen / @dancow : Ironically, back when (5+ years ago) Google's algorithm was still simple/literal enough to favor conspiracy sites on loaded question queries - e.g. “did the holocaust happen?” — DuckDuckGo took a proactive, opinionated approach with handcrafted+crowdsourced “Instant Answers” https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Jesse Pesta / @jessepesta : Interesting. In a test, search engines DuckDuckGo and Bing returned more climate conspiracy nonsense (and other junk info and conspiracy baloney) than Google. And conservative influencers are embracing DuckDuckGo. By @stuartathompson https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Alice E. Marwick / @alicetiara : None of us are cited (although there are links), but this piece draws on work from @zephoria @mjgolebiewski @william_partin and I, among others: https://www.nytimes.com/... Dan Nguyen / @dancow : As NYT story notes, Google “tweaked its algorithm” to deal with Nazi sites topping results for “did the holocaust happen”. Mainstream reliable sites have also tweaked their SEO — e.g. having pages that co-opt conspiracy-laden phrasing non-paywall link: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Dan Nguyen / @dancow : DDG's Instant Answers initiative — “DuckDuckHack” — lasted 5 years and crowdsourced 1,200+ answers. Its test suite included validations for the answers to questions about the Holocaust and moon landing It was discontinued in 2017, ostensibly b/c it was too hard to scale. https://twitter.com/... Stuart A. Thompson / @stuartathompson : DuckDuckGo uses the search engine algorithm from Bing, which is owned by Microsoft. they have little direct control over the list of links they display. so what's up with Bing's algo? it also weighs reliability and relevance, but it's apparently less ruthless about it. Stuart A. Thompson / @stuartathompson : in tests, we found that searches for conspiracies on Bing and DuckDuckGo surfaced more untrustworthy sources. we used website ratings from three sources to judge about 30 terms, then hand-checked a selection to see if they advanced the conspiracy. Brian Lyman / @lyman_brian : Imagine explaining this headline to someone from 1997. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... @carnage4life : Whenever I read about people endorsing DuckDuckGo over Google for search quality, I like to remind them that the search results are actually from Bing. What DuckDuckGo adds is mostly less logging of searcher data for privacy reasons. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis : Google is on the side of truth. The right-wing nuts are not. They find their disinformation on DuckDuckGo. https://www.nytimes.com/... Zach Williams / @zachreports : “DuckDuckGo...holds little direct control over the links in its search results bc they are generated by the search engine algorithm provided by Bing” https://www.nytimes.com/... Stuart A. Thompson / @stuartathompson : their theory is that Google “suppresses” search results that are favorable to their views. Google doesn't do this, but they do rank reliability higher these days, along with relevance, so if you search for conspiracies, those sites might be favored less than trustworthy sources @pt : TIL that DuckDuck go is a) white-labeled Bing, and b) has 3% of the search market. A isn't surprising given the cost of indexing & value prop, but B is way higher than I'd have guessed. NPR ad reads FTW. https://t.co/Ov8tMr1PFr Stuart A. Thompson / @stuartathompson : i also noticed this myself. when searching for background information on emerging conspiracies, I've struggled at times to find first-hand conspiracy content on Google. I've shifted to other search engines to see what conspiracists are writing. Stuart A. Thompson / @stuartathompson : first I heard DuckDuckGo getting recommended by the most popular conservative podcasters in the world, like Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino. then I'd see it pop up in social media, where people would say “duckduckgo this thing, don't use Google” Rob Pegoraro / @robpegoraro : This NYT story a) spotlights what appears to be a real misinfo problem and b) show why you need to read past the headline—the issue outlined lies not at DuckDuckGo but at Bing, and Microsoft has many more resources to throw at this problem. https://www.nytimes.com/... Stuart A. Thompson / @stuartathompson : DuckDuckGo said some of the terms we searched got little or no traffic. so why test those esoteric terms at all? one researcher told me “you don't test a fire alarm in a field.” conspiracists by definition work on the margins, and sometimes their esoteric theories take off Dan Kennedy / @dankennedy_nu : What steps did the @nytimes take to evade personalization when it tested Google? They don't tell us. Seems like a pretty significant omission. https://www.nytimes.com/... Steve Kovach / @stevekovach : Conservatives are worried about Big Tech censorship, so they're using DuckDuckGo instead of Google. But DuckDuckGo's search algorithm is powered by Bing, which is owned by... Microsoft. Nailed it. https://www.nytimes.com/... Glenn Gabe / @glenngabe : Sounds like DuckDuckGo (& really Bing) might need to focus more on E-A-T -> Fed Up With Google, Conspiracy Theorists Turn to DuckDuckGo (results provided by Bing) “For many terms, Bing & DuckDuckGo surfaced more untrustworthy websites than Google did...” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
DuckDuckGo had built its position around privacy while remaining a small search-market player; its reported growth had not changed that underlying scale. The current endorsement campaign turns dissatisfaction with Google’s COVID-19 results into a distribution channel for an alternative whose results are generated with Bing’s algorithm.
The appeal to an "unbiased" alternative is inherently fragile: DuckDuckGo later chose to down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation, illustrating that its ranking policies can become a political flashpoint as well.
First-order effects
- DuckDuckGo gains promotion from Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and other conservative commentators, while Google becomes the target of renewed public claims that it suppresses COVID-19 information.
- Users who follow the recommendations may receive more untrustworthy sites for conspiracy-related queries than they would on Google, according to the tests reported by the New York Times.
Second-order effects
- Because DuckDuckGo relies on Bing’s search algorithm, the campaign also redirects attention toward Bing rather than creating a fully independent search alternative.
- DuckDuckGo’s privacy-and-neutrality positioning faces greater scrutiny when its results surface material that Google ranks less prominently and when it applies editorial down-ranking policies.
Third-order effects
- Search competition is increasingly shaped by trust in ranking decisions, not only privacy or product features; politically motivated switching can reward services that promise less intervention.
- The dependence of DuckDuckGo and other alternatives on major indexing infrastructure leaves search plurality vulnerable when publishers restrict access, as in the later blocking of non-Google search engines from recent Reddit results.
The trend: Search choice is becoming a contest over perceived ranking neutrality, even as many challengers remain dependent on incumbent search infrastructure.