Google faced fierce backlash on Sunday after it censored an assassination attempt against 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from its search engine's “autocomplete” feature.
A video posted to X by Libs Of TikTok shows that when you type the phrase “Trump assassination attempt” into Google's search engine, it doesn't automatically recommend the related phrase “Trump assassination attempt,” but instead shows “Truman assassination attempt” as the top result.
Other results under the search conducted by Libs Of TikTok included “…Trump incident,” “…Trump administration,” and “How many presidents have suffered assassination attempts?”
“Google needs to be called before Congress and explained about this,” wrote Libs Of TikTok. “Orwellian.”
Google needs to be called before Congress to explain this.
Orwellian. pic.twitter.com/jjveFydcgo
— TikTok Library (@libsoftiktok) July 28, 2024
Google autofill doesn't show results when I type the whole word @Google.
We are witnessing the erasure of history in real time.
can't believe it. pic.twitter.com/PYUXqfmXHu
— TikTok Library (@libsoftiktok) July 28, 2024
Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall posted a screenshot of his search results, accusing Google of “throttling” searches about the assassination attempt on President Trump and promising the company a “formal investigation.” (RELATED: 'A total miracle': Trump's White House physician gives medical update after shooting)
“Why is Google throttling searches related to the Trump assassination attempt? These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the past two weeks?” Marshall asked. “We will be launching a formal investigation with Google later this week. We look forward to hearing from them.”
why @Google Are they suppressing searches regarding the Trump assassination attempt? These are all screenshots from this morning. Have there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the past two weeks?
I'm going to do a formal investigation. @Google This week – I’m looking forward to… pic.twitter.com/GD5SOvvcdX
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) July 28, 2024
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas shared a screenshot of himself showing how few “Trump” suggestions are coming up in search engine autocomplete features.
“I can confirm this,” Roy wrote.
You can check it. translator @Google https://t.co/Qi5EgzPnVK pic.twitter.com/jmEL5iqZld
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) July 28, 2024
Many other users, including Donald Trump Jr., also spoke out about Google's apparent censorship of the Trump assassination attempt in its autocomplete searches, with the Republican candidate's son accusing Google of “trying again to interfere in our election.”
“Big Tech is once again trying to interfere in our election to help Kamala Harris. We all know this is deliberate election interference by Google. This is despicable,” Trump's son wrote, along with a screenshot of the search results.
Big Tech is once again trying to meddle in our election to help Kamala Harris. We all know this is deliberate election interference by Google. It's despicable. https://t.co/gWDbFGaHI7
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 28, 2024
A Google spokesperson told the Daily Caller that “taking manual action on these predictions” did not apparently deter the assassination attempt on Trump.
“No manual actions were taken against these predictions. Our systems have protections against autocomplete predictions related to political violence and were working as intended before this horrific event. We are working on improvements to make our systems more up to date. Of course, autocomplete is just a tool to save people time, and people can still search for anything. After this horrific event, people turned to Google to find quality information. We connect people to useful results and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson said.
President Trump was shot in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
