Google finally admitted that it messed up when it censored autocomplete search suggestions related to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Earlier this month, Google’s search suggestions for the words “assassination attempt on” autocompleted the search with “truman” and “ronald reagan,” referring to the former presidents. Trump’s name was nowhere to be found. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) urged Google to explain the apparent censorship in a forceful letter. Google, however, once again explained it away as an error caused by “out-of-date systems.”
Mark Isakowitz, the vice president of government affairs and public policy at Google responded to Marshall's letter Wednesday. “[O]ur systems are designed to prohibit Autocomplete predictions for hypothetical political violence against current figures,” he wrote referring to the algorithm generally. [T]hese protections are not event-specific but rather applied to categories of possible searches. As a result, prior to July 13, 2024, it would have been inappropriate for our systems to offer any predictions involving possible assassination attempts on President Trump.”
Isakowitz continued, “In the immediate aftermath of the horrific events in Butler, PA, these systems were still in place and predictions related to the assassination attempt failed to appear. We recognize that these out-of-date systems led to an inadequate user experience.”
“I’ve got news for Google; no rational person in the world thought the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life was hypothetical. The blood streaming from his head was real and the death of a patriotic attendee was real. It is an insult to the life of [Capt. X] to claim otherwise,” DS said. Schneider continued, “Google’s constant excuse about so-called glitches in the system also rings hollow. Its malfeasance always runs against Republicans and conservatives.”
The Google executive added that once the tech giant became aware of the issue it worked to institute “systematic improvements.”
The Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced Wednesday that the launch of an investigation into Google’s autocomplete error and Facebook’s fact-check labels on images of Trump immediately after the assassination attempt on July 13.
Google’s admission does not make it any more trustworthy. Hanlon’s razor, coined by Robert Hanlon, cautions to “never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity (or incompetence),” but Google has clearly shown it is capable of both.
MRC Free Speech America studies demonstrated that searches for "donald trump," "trump rally” and “j d vance rally” returned news and “Top Stories” about “Kamala Harris.”
Earlier this year, MRC also documented 41 times Google has interfered in elections since 2008.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment and provide an equal platform for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
