Kansas Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) has announced an investigation into Google, accusing the woke tech giant of manipulating search results to suppress information regarding the recent assassination attempt on President Trump.
Over the weekend, users across various platforms reported that searches for terms related to the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump yielded no relevant autocomplete suggestions.
Instead, the algorithm appeared to prioritize historical incidents involving other political figures, such as Presidents Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, along with unrelated events like the shooting of musician Bob Marley.
Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris. We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable. https://t.co/gWDbFGaHI7
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 28, 2024
“This raises serious questions about Google’s intentions,” Senator Marshall tweeted. “Why is Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt? These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?”
Why is @Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt? These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?
I’ll be making an official inquiry into @google this week – I look forward… pic.twitter.com/GD5SOvvcdX
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) July 28, 2024
Senator Marshall officially sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai demanding answers and calling for a full congressional inquiry into Google’s “blatant bias” against conservative voices.
In his letter, Senator Marshall stated:
“Google’s failure to provide suggestions related to the assassination attempt against President Trump on July 13, 2024, as part of its search function is yet another example of censorship against conservative voices and violates the intent of Section 230.
Omitting suggestions to the most obvious and recent victim of an assassination attempt shows willful discrimination against President Trump and users of your search engine. Furthermore, Google’s decision to selectively erect hurdles to those seeking to obtain more information regarding one of the most important events in recent American history places you in the role of information arbiter, well beyond the scope of your firm’s purported purpose.”
Senator Marshall further asserted that if Google wishes to act as a publisher or editor, Congress should consider removing the Section 230 protections that have long shielded the company from such accountability.
Marshall also stated in the letter:
Over the weekend, Google claimed that “no manual action” was taken to effectuate these results. However, this clarification is woefully inadequate, disingenuous, and misleading. If the autocomplete function is truly reflective of the recent searches completed on Google, the self-learning algorithms should have easily adjusted their autocomplete function during a massive increase in search queries over the last two weeks.
Google employees have previously raised concerns that the internal unspoken company standard is to play “whatever political side of the fence” that the country is on.Furthermore, some of my Republican colleagues have raised concerns regarding recommendation system algorithms under the umbrella of Alphabet and the bias of content they provide to operators seeking information.
Given your firm’s repeated behavior, my colleagues and I will be initiating an investigation into Google’s censorship, bias, and constricting the free flow of information. Furthermore, as a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), I will do everything in my power to encourage fellow Committee members to force Google to testify under oath regarding these practices.
I ask that you provide the answers to the following questions no later than Friday, August 9th, 2024.
- Why does Google’s search suggestion function create automated entries for “assassination attempt on President Truman” but not “assassination attempt on President Trump”?
- Who oversees the algorithmic search function at Google?
- Can you discuss why you believe hiding violent search results is better for the public discourse than offering up-to-date information?
- What decisions were made at Google in the aftermath of the July 13th assassination attempt in regards to searches for the July 13th attack on President Trump?
- Please provide any written correspondence between employees at Google regarding updating the search function in response to the July 13th attack
- If autocomplete systems have protections against “political violence” why does the system make suggestions after querying the words “political violence”?
- What are some other global instances in which Google took the same precautions as they have with the events of July 13th?
- What is Google’s timeline for adding the attempted assassination of Donald Trump to it autocomplete search feature?
- What is Google’s timeline for making the attempted assassination of Donald Trump a search Topic, similar to that of the attempted assassination of Harry Truman, on Google?
This investigation should not come as a surprise. The Gateway Pundit previously reported that a study confirms Google has interfered in American elections 41 times in recent years.
According to the study, “Media Research Center researchers have found 41 times where Google interfered in elections over the last 16 years, and its impact has surged dramatically, making it ever more harmful to democracy. In every case, Google harmed the candidates – regardless of party – who threatened its left-wing candidate of choice.”
Their report continued, “From the mouths of Google executives, the tech giant let slip what was never meant to be made public: That Google uses its ‘great strength and resources and reach’ to advance its leftist values. Google’s outsized influence on information technology, the body politic and American elections became evident in 2008. After failing to prevent then-candidate for president Donald Trump from being inaugurated following the 2016 election, Google has since made clear to any discerning observer that it has been — and will continue — interfering in America’s elections.”
The post Senator Marshall Officially Launches Investigation Against Google for Alleged Election Interference — Accused of Rigging Search Results to Prioritize Left-Wing Propaganda appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.