[dinofacedude]

Its mostly the sheer influence that FB has. Google has a ton of sway itself, but outside of Youtube, most people mostly spend their time on the internet with Facebook. As seen with Cambridge Analytica, a lot of info on people's beliefs and party affiliations is known by facebook, so FB can actually influence a persons votes. Google has that power as well, but to a much lesser extent.

[cm2187]

You are ignoring google news, where they effectively run their own editing by selecting the articles at the top, and also what comes back as the first page of result when you type “joe biden thinks” for instance. I’d say they have at least the same political influence.

Particularly given that never mind what their reported engagement numbers say, I only know people who stopped using facebook around me. I just don’t believe their numbers.

[JetSpiegel]

Google News is completely irrelevant, comparing to Facebook. Particularly for news.

[dinofacedude]

Google News is not a proper competitor to FB though. No one I know uses it at all

[cm2187]

Doesn't seem to be the opinion of news websites when they were cut out by google

[mastazi]

> outside of Youtube, most people mostly spend their time on the internet with Facebook

I suppose this (the fact that people are using Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp more than the various Google products) is atypical in my "personal bubble" (my family, close friends etc.), so that's probably where my perception is skewed.