Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and SpaceX) claimed on Sunday, July 28 that Google has imposed a search ban against former US president Donald Trump.
Musk expressed his concern on X (formerly Twitter), suggesting that Google could be involved in election interference.
Musk posted a screenshot that showed typing in “president Donald” to Google’s search box did not result in Donald Trump, but rather “president Donald Duck” or “president Donald Regan”.
Musk’s Tweet quickly gained momentum, and sparked a wider discussion on the role that tech giants play in politics, particularly in the run-up to 2024 US Presidential Elections.
Both critics and supporters weighed in to see if Google’s autocomplete function was used to suppress Trump-related information.
Republican senator demands investigation into Google’s policies
Roger Marshall, a Republican senator from Kansas, joined the discussion by accusing Google that it deliberately withheld information regarding an alleged attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks to assassinate Donald Trump.
Marshall posted screenshots that purportedly showed autocomplete suggestions for searches related to an assassination attempted did not match the search terms.
He demanded an investigation into Google’s practices and questioned the impartiality and transparency of its search algorithm.
Why is Google suppressing searches about Trump’s assassination? All screenshots are from today. “Has there been an increase in Truman biographers in the past two weeks?” Senator Marshall asked, drawing attention to a perceived lack of consistency in Google autocomplete’s suggestions.
Google autocomplete: policies and controversy
Google autocomplete is designed to help users save time. It predicts search queries while they type.
Google’s policies prevent this feature from being used in a way that violates its guidelines. These include:
- Content that is dangerous
- Harassing Content
- Hashish content
- Content that is sexually explicit
- Content containing terrorist content
- Violence and Gore
- The use of vulgar language
The guidelines aim to remove harmful or inappropriate suggestions from the autocomplete. Some users claim that the policies could lead to bias and inconsistency in search results.
Autocomplete autocompletes different figures in politics differently
The New York Post investigated Google’s autocomplete function and found some notable differences.
Tests involve typing the word “assassi”, followed by names such as John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt are also included.
Google autocompleted relevant suggestions in each of the cases. Similar searches on Donald Trump did not yield any suggestions.
The New York Post reported that Google did not return any additional keywords for the keyword ‘Trump Assassination Attempt’.
It was also pointed out that the autocomplete didn’t provide any suggestions when searching for an alleged attempt to assassinate Joe Biden.
In spite of these results, the actual search engine results were comprehensive and accurate.
Google’s reaction and current developments
A Google spokesperson responded to the controversy by stating that Google is constantly working to update its systems.
Autocomplete is a simple tool that helps people to save time. They can search for whatever they like. Google was used by many people to search for high quality information after this horrible act. We will continue to provide them with useful results.
Google confirmed that there are no manual intervention in autocomplete prediction, which suggests that discrepancies could be caused by the complexity of the feature and not intentional suppression.
Google under scrutiny
Elon Musk’s claims and Senator Marshall’s request for an investigation have highlighted the possible influence that tech giants can exert on political and public processes.
Google’s role in influencing political discourse will likely be scrutinized more as the US Presidential election of 2024 approaches.
Transparency and accountability are essential in this digital age.
The autocomplete feature that we currently know may change as new information is revealed.
