Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall demanded Wednesday in a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai that the big tech company answer for its apparent “censorship” surrounding the assassination attempt against 2024 GOP nominee Donald Trump from Google’s “autocomplete” feature.
Social media users, including Marshall and other high-profile Republicans, railed Sunday against Google after noticing that the search engine did not automatically recommend the relevant phrase “assassination attempt on Trump” after typing the words “assassination attempt on Trum….”
Google needs to be hauled in front of Congress to answer for this.
Orwellian. pic.twitter.com/jjveFydcgo
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 28, 2024
In his letter to Pichai, Marshall slammed Google for the apparent omission of search results. The senator wrote he was “not surprised” by the big tech company’s actions given “Google’s demonstrated history of manipulating results and discrimination against conservative ideology.”
🚨BREAKING: I am launching a full investigation into @Google’s censorship & bias that is constricting the free flow of information. Google, the largest Search Engine Operator in the world, has become a propaganda wing of the Left. No more hiding behind your algorithm- your time… pic.twitter.com/l40L4TVQS4
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) July 31, 2024
“Google, the largest Search Engine Operator in the world, has become a propaganda wing of the Biden-Harris Administration and the radical Left. We’ve known Big Tech has propped up the Biden Crime Family, and the Clintons and is now doing Kamala Harris’ bidding, but this week, they have shown there truly is no low they won’t go to, including censoring the assassination attempt of President Trump. This is election interference- there must be accountability,” Marshall told the Daily Caller.
Marshall, who sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, believes Google should testify before Congress about the processes leading to the alleged censorship. (RELATED: ‘Blizzard Of Lies’: Ron DeSantis Rips Into Media For Trying To ‘Whitewash’ Kamala Harris)
Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn ripped into Google for having “heavily interfered” in the 2020 election in an exclusive statement to the Daily Caller. She said Google still has “a lot of explaining to do.”
“The same groups that heavily interfered in the 2020 election expect us to believe their claims that the censorship of the Donald Trump assassination attempt was an innocent mistake or the result of faulty AI software. Big Tech got caught with their thumbs on the scale, and they’re trying to hide their coverup. Make no mistake: Google – and their tech counterparts – still have a lot of explaining to do and a lot of accountability to face. Why does a Google search for ‘Donald Trump’ still generate top results for ‘Kamala Harris,’ but not vice versa?” Blackburn told the Daily Caller.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz slammed Democrats for “trying to memory hole” the attempt on Trump’s life in an exclusive statement to the Daily Caller.
“On Monday, I blasted Google on my podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. Their failure to update their recommendation system to include the historical event of the attempted assassination on President Donald Trump for two weeks is anti-democratic and anti-truth. They only fixed this issue after they got caught. From Google to the political leadership at the FBI and from Joy Reid to liberal influencers on TikTok, the left is desperate to memory hole the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump. They are terrified of voters seeing the kind of leader that President Trump is — the kind of man whose first words after being shot were to tell his fellow Americans to fight for their country. He exhibited tremendous courage under fire, and he is the kind of man that we want representing America on the world stage,” Cruz stated.
Google’s “autocomplete” issue appeared to be fixed early Wednesday.
It appears @Google has fixed the suppression of “assassination attempt on Trump” from its autocomplete feature. pic.twitter.com/MF5ZTpHT0V
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) July 31, 2024
Google directed the Daily Caller to a thread on Twitter that claimed “censorship” of the assassination attempt on Trump was “not happening.”
Over the past few days, some people on X have posted claims that Search is “censoring” or “banning” particular terms. That’s not happening, and we want to set the record straight.
The posts relate to our Autocomplete feature, which predicts queries to save you time. Autocomplete…
— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) July 30, 2024
“Autocomplete wasn’t providing predictions for queries about the assassination attempt against former President Trump. That’s because it has built-in protections related to political violence — and those systems were out of date,” Google Communications wrote on X. “After the horrific events in Butler, PA, those predicted queries should have appeared but didn’t. Once the issue was flagged, we started working on improvements, and they’re already rolling out.”
(2/5) First, Autocomplete wasn’t providing predictions for queries about the assassination attempt against former President Trump. That’s because it has built-in protections related to political violence — and those systems were out of date.
After the horrific events in Butler,… pic.twitter.com/kwbV0WgLIn
— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) July 30, 2024
Trump responded to the uproar Tuesday, writing:
“Facebook has just admitted that it wrongly censored the Trump ‘attempted assassination photo,’ and got caught. Same thing for Google. They made it virtually impossible to find pictures or anything about this heinous act. Both are facing BIG BACKLASH OVER CENSORSHIP CLAIMS. Here we go again, another attempt at RIGGING THE ELECTION!!! GO AFTER META AND GOOGLE. LET THEM KNOW WE ARE ALL WISE TO THEM, WILL BE MUCH TOUGHER THIS TIME. MAGA2024!”
Matthew Crooks, according to the FBI, attempted to assassinate Trump at a rally July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, but the bullet grazed Trump‘s ear. The GOP nominee will hold a rally Wednesday evening in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — his first event in the state since the assassination attemp, CBS News reported.