Google defends impartiality of search results amid lockdown rumours in Japan

Google has defended the impartiality of its search results after users in Japan seeking to corroborate rumours of an imminent state of emergency declaration by the government were met with no results on its website.
Climbing coronavirus cases in Tokyo have seen politicians call for residents to reduce social mixing and have led to a slew of messages circulating on social media asserting a broader lockdown is imminent.
The government on Monday denied it was preparing to lock down the country on April 1 as rumoured earlier.
Google users found that using the search term “state of emergency declaration April 2” in Japanese was returning no results – an unusual outcome on the world’s top search site and sparking further speculation of censorship by the company.