House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is raising questions about efforts by Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) to censor accurate information about the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump and the Trump campaign more broadly.
According to the Committee, Comer is "launching an investigation following recent concerning reports indicating Meta’s AI assistant and Google Search’s Autocomplete function generated inaccurate or non-germane information related to the assassination attempt of President Donald Trump," adding, "the Committee has long been concerned with how large technology companies leverage their businesses to influence public opinion, especially against the backdrop of an alarming pattern of speech suppression and censorship peddled through technology and social media companies."
Hey @Google, why is there no search suggestion for the attempted assassination of President Trump? And before you claim that you simply don’t provide suggestions for ANY assassination attempts, just know that we know that you do with Reagan and Roosevelt. https://t.co/GSKLhuScib pic.twitter.com/mp6lu66nM9
— Brian Biakeddy (@bbiakeddy) July 28, 2024
Comer sent letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday afternoon demanding answers about the censorship of factual information.
“Americans rely upon prominent internet search engines such as Google to gather news and information critical to their understanding of national politics and events—and never more so than during a Presidential election season,” Comer wrote in a letter to Pichai. “On behalf of the American people, the Committee is dedicated to fully understanding when and how information is being suppressed or modified, whether it be due to technical error, a policy intended to ensure safety, or a specific intent to mislead."
"Google users report that autocompleted search prompts related to the assassination attempt of President Trump produced results for failed assassination attempts of former Presidents, including Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan—or even assassinations of historical figures such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand—but omitted from the list of automatically generated search suggestions the recent attempt on President Trump’s life. The Committee now writes to request certain documents and information to assist its investigation of this matter to better understand how Google designs its Search product and Autocomplete feature,” Comer continued.
Meanwhile, Google is blaming a "glitch" that helped the Harris campaign manipulate news headlines used in advertisements -- making them look favorable to her positions -- without making the edits clear.
NEW — Harris campaign accused of REWRITING news headlines in paid Google ads to manipulate users.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 14, 2024
Google blames "a glitch in their system" for the failure to disclose the manipulated advertisements.
"Well that's cheating!" pic.twitter.com/kd5fgmJP7W