Campaigning through the lens of Google: A large-scale algorithm audit of Google searches in the run-up to the Swiss Federal Elections 2023
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Jul 8, 2025
Abstract
Search engines like Google have become major sources of information for
voters during election campaigns. To assess potential biases across candidates'
gender and partisan identities in the algorithmic curation of candidate
information, we conducted a large-scale algorithm audit analyzing Google's
selection and ranking of information about candidates for the 2023 Swiss
Federal Elections, three and one week before the election day. Results indicate
that text searches prioritize media sources in search output but less so for
women politicians. Image searches revealed a tendency to reinforce stereotypes
about women candidates, marked by a disproportionate focus on stereotypically
pleasant emotions for women, particularly among right-leaning candidates.
Crucially, we find that patterns of candidates' representation in Google text
and image searches are predictive of their electoral performance.
