Google HQ in New York
Google HQ in New YorkSerge Attal/Flash 90

Google employees discussed ways to engineer search results so that users would be directed to pro-immigration organizations after US President Donald Trump banned entry to the US for citizens of seven countries, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The ban, which included seven all Muslim-majority countries with strong links to terror, excluded US citizens and those with work permits. It was signed in January 2017, and later revised.

The report comes after the Wall Street Journal obtained internal company emails from January 2017. In the emails, employees discussed ways to counter what they claimed to be "algorithmically biased search results."

The terms discussed included "Muslim," "Islam," "Iran," Hispanic," "Latino," and "Mexico."

Google denies that any of the ideas were implemented.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Google wrote, "Google has never manipulated its search results or modified any of its products to promote a particular political ideology -- not in the current campaign season, not during the 2016 election, and not in the aftermath of President Trump’s executive order on immigration."

They also said that, "Our processes and policies would not have allowed for any manipulation of search results to promote political ideologies."