Autocrat’s instincts

Here’s a keyboard test: Google “Trump news” and watch what comes up. White House-friendly Fox News is arrayed along with critical coverage that President Trump denounces as fake.

Taking a short tour on the biggest search engine shows how wrong — dangerously wrong — the president is by dangling the idea of censoring social media he doesn’t like.

Trump is joining a conservative chorus that devoutly and mistakenly believes that platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter juggle the news to bury their views and favor liberal and mainstream outlooks. It’s pure nonsense that shows how little Trump understands about how algorithm-driven news outlets operate. “Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology,’’ Google said in response.

But it’s great politics, a way to play to his hardshell base that sympathizes with Trump’s view that he’s treated unfairly. It also plays on widening doubts about the power of social media outlets and their fumbling efforts to police themselves.

In a spate of angry tweets, the president said Google is “RIGGED” to block out conservative media, adding it was “a very serious situation” and would be “addressed.” He gave no specifics, but his top economic adviser, Lawrence Kudlow, said, “We’re taking a look at it.”

They should stop right now. A White House-sponsored censor would be the most foolish and unconstitutional idea yet from a president who knows no bounds. It’s another dose of demagoguery built on disinformation and myth.