How Google’s search bias toward social media is burying quality journalism in Nepal

Over the past few years, Google’s search results have undergone a quiet but powerful transformation. Instead of guiding users toward in-depth, credible news articles, the platform increasingly highlights short-form, entertainment-driven social media content—particularly from TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

For newsrooms in Nepal and elsewhere, this shift poses a real threat. It is no longer just difficult for well-researched articles to appear on the first page of Google Search; it is almost impossible when competing against platforms that flood the SERP with viral content across multiple placements.

The TikTok takeover of the SERP

Today, when someone in Nepal searches for a trending topic—be it political unrest, a celebrity controversy, or a cultural movement—they are likely to see multiple TikTok videos in the results. These videos appear not only in the video carousel and shorts section, but also among the top 10 blue links and in social media updates carousels.

This creates redundant, low-quality SERPs, where the same content appears in multiple formats. Even worse, the content is often misleading, factually incorrect, or created solely for attention—not accuracy.

Meanwhile, original reporting from local Nepali newsrooms, detailed investigative stories, or balanced analysis pieces are pushed far below, where most users will never scroll.

Why it’s especially harmful in Nepal

This trend is troubling anywhere—but in Nepal, the consequences are more serious:

• Nepali newsrooms already face financial and infrastructural limitations, with shrinking ad revenue and limited resources to fight for digital visibility.
• Public trust is fragile. When viral social videos are presented as the primary source of information, it undermines the value of journalism and encourages shortcut consumption of facts.
• Digital literacy is still developing, especially outside urban areas. If search results are dominated by viral content over verified facts, users are more susceptible to believing and sharing misinformation.

When Google’s algorithm gives the same weight—or even higher priority—to an unverified TikTok than to a fact-checked news article, it is not just a technical issue. It’s a threat to information integrity in young democracies like ours.

Social media is not the enemy—but it shouldn’t be the default

This is not a call to ban social media from search results. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have their value, especially for entertainment and grassroots storytelling. But they were never meant to replace journalism.

They lack fact-checking, editorial review, accountability, or transparency—elements that are essential in times of political instability, public health crises, and major national events.

A way forward for Google

If Google truly wants to prioritize helpful, relevant content—as it often states in its mission—then it must rethink how it treats social media posts in search rankings.

We propose:

• Deduplicating SERPs by showing a social media post only once across all result formats.
• Prioritizing original journalism, especially in news-related queries.
• Giving more weight to structured content and fact-checking signals, rather than blindly favoring domain authority.

Let’s not forget: many of these social media platforms rank so well simply because they have millions of backlinks—not because their content is more trustworthy or informative.

Protecting Nepal’s digital future

Nepal’s open web still has room to grow. Independent journalism, educational content creators, and public-interest writers are trying to build a better digital information environment. But if the rules of visibility on the internet continue to favor virality over value, that effort will fall short.

Google must play its part. The search engine has the power to influence what people in Nepal (and the world) read, believe, and share. The algorithm needs to reflect that responsibility.

Let the SERP be a place where truth, depth, and verified voices still have a chance.