House Republicans Probe Google Over Censorship Claims Concerning Donald Trump

House Republicans have raised concerns with Google after discovering that searches related to former President Donald Trump, including incidents such as an assassination attempt, were not auto-completing and were instead yielding results for Vice President Kamala Harris. The technology giant attributed these issues to glitches, stating that these had inadvertently influenced the search outcomes.

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), has informed of upcoming discussions with Google representatives to address suspicions of possible interference in the 2024 presidential race through the suppression of information about Trump. Jordan cited Google’s parent company, Alphabet, acknowledging issues with their Autocomplete feature not displaying Trump’s name in searches for “President Donald” among other related terms, ascribing it to a technical fault that they claim to have since rectified.

Jordan expressed skepticism towards Alphabet’s explanations, urging Google to provide clearer responses on measures in place to prevent recurrence of such issues. He emphasized the necessity for reassurance to the American public that similar disruptions, whether deliberate or accidental, won’t happen in the future.

The letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai from the committee pointed out the correction of a specific problem where searches about assassination attempts failed to mention Trump, attributing the issue to outdated “built-in protections around political violence.” Despite the correction, Google acknowledged that from the duration of the July 13th shooting event until at least July 29, search functionalities were hindered, though manual searches were possible.

However, Jordan noted even manual searches often spotlighted Vice President Harris instead of Trump, an issue Alphabet attributes to their algorithm that generates news labels and stories in response to searches, admitting the potential for unexpected results or errors.

With concerns over a perceived bias in the promotion of news outlets by the search algorithm, Jordan questioned whether Alphabet has a preference for liberal news sources over conservative ones, asking about the steps taken to ensure the algorithm’s impartiality.

Furthermore, Jordan mentioned Google’s legal obligation to provide Congress with documents related to a February 2023 subpoena, including those generated post-subpoena. 

The Judiciary Committee’s investigations extend to examining alleged political bias within major tech companies and digital advertisers. They suggest the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an advertising coalition, might have breached anti-trust laws by deterring companies from partnering with conservative media, allegedly uniting advertisers to influence tech platform modifications favorable to Democrats.

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