Search giant Google faces accusations of election interference following its omission of former President Donald Trump from its search autocomplete. The search engine’s autocomplete function does not suggest Trump’s name when typing “assassination attempt on,” despite the event being a highly viral subject. Donald Trump Jr. has criticized Google, alleging this action interferes with the 2024 presidential election and calling it “truly despicable.”
Probably just a coincidence that Alphabet (Google) employees were the top donors to Biden https://t.co/H02dxmKPkL pic.twitter.com/tIj0THeTVc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024
Over the weekend, numerous posts on social media platform X displayed screenshots showing the exclusion. Users who independently verified the claims confirmed that Google’s search does not autofill with Trump’s name in queries related to the assassination attempt. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) announced plans to launch an official inquiry into Google’s practices, stating he looks forward to the company’s response.
Google admitted in a statement to the New York Post that its autocomplete feature is omitting the suggestions due to political violence. A spokesman said that no manual manipulations were made to these predictions.
Meta AI has also censored mentions of the assassination attempt on Trump. On July 13, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attack resulted in the death of Trump supporter Corey Comperatore and left a military veteran critically injured.