Why Trump supporters are accusing Sundar Pichai and Google of ‘bias’

The controversy surrounding Google, led by Sundar Pichai, has escalated as Trump supporters accuse the tech giant of election interference. The issue arose when Google’s autocomplete function failed to suggest information about an attempted assassination of former United States President Donald Trump, sparking outrage among his supporters.

The autocomplete feature provided suggestions for historical assassination attempts on figures like Ronald Reagan and John F Kennedy but did not include Trump, despite the incident occurring on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

This omission has led to accusations of bias against Google, with claims that the company is manipulating information to influence the upcoming 2024 US presidential election.

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How have Republicans reacted?

The incident prompted a strong reaction from Trump supporters and prominent Republican figures. Donald Trump Jr. expressed his frustration on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, stating, “Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris.”

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

He accused Google of intentionally suppressing information about the assassination attempt, viewing it as an effort to aid US Vice President Kamala Harris in the election. Trump’s supporters have long suspected Google of bias, especially given the company’s alleged suppression of information related to US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

Republican US Senator Roger Marshall also voiced his concerns, sharing a screenshot that highlighted Google’s omission. He questioned, “Why is @Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt? Has there been a dramatic increase in (Harry) 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

The accusations extended to Pichai himself, with some suggesting that his Indian heritage influenced his supposed support for Harris, also of Indian descent. One post on X read, “Sundar Pichai top boss at google is…doing everything in his power to ensure the next president is of India descent,” while another labelled him a “socialist” favouring “Marxists who run the DNC.”

How did Google respond?

In response to the controversy, a Google spokesperson clarified that the company’s systems have built-in protections against autocomplete predictions related to political violence, which were functioning as intended.

The spokesperson stated, “We’re working on improvements to ensure our systems are more up to date. Of course, Autocomplete is just a tool to help people save time, and they can still search for anything they want to.” Despite this explanation, the issue continued to draw criticism, with many arguing that the omission was a deliberate act of bias.

How did Musk & Meta get involved?

Elon Musk, owner of X, also became involved in the controversy. Musk, who has openly supported Trump, posted a screenshot showing a Google search for “President Donald” that suggested “President Donald Duck” instead of “President Donald Trump.”

Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump!

Election interference? pic.twitter.com/dJzgVAAFZA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024

Musk sarcastically questioned whether this was an instance of “Election interference?” He further commented on the significant donations from Alphabet (Google’s parent company) employees to Biden’s campaign, implying a bias within the company.

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

Meta, another tech giant, faced criticism for a similar issue. The company’s AI chatbot, Meta AI, was accused of providing misleading information about the Trump assassination attempt. In one instance, the bot incorrectly labelled the event as “fictional.”

Meta later apologised, acknowledging that the incident was an error and stating, “We know people have been seeing incomplete, inconsistent, or out of date information on this topic. We’re in the process of implementing a fix to provide more up-to-date responses for inquiries, and it is possible people may continue to see inaccurate responses in the meantime.”

What political implications are we looking at?

The allegations of bias against Google and other tech giants have significant political implications, especially as the US approaches the 2024 presidential election. Trump’s supporters view the perceived manipulation of information as a form of election interference designed to disadvantage their candidate.

The controversy has fueled calls for investigations, with some Republican lawmakers pledging to look into the matter.

The situation has also highlighted the broader issue of Big Tech’s role in shaping public discourse and information. With past incidents of social media platforms banning Trump following the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, the debate over tech companies’ influence in politics remains a hot topic.