Google is facing backlash for seemingly censoring autocomplete on searches related to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The phrases “assassination attempt on Tru…” and "Trump assassination att..." do not bring up any autocomplete options for the search.
Instead, Google offers search options such as “assassination attempt on Truman.”
“Google needs to be hauled in front of Congress to answer for this,” Libs Of TikTok posted on X along with a screen recording of the search. “Orwellian.” Google needs to be hauled in front of Congress to answer for this.
Orwellian. pic.twitter.com/jjveFydcgo
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 28, 2024
SCNR independently confirmed the lack of a proper autocomplete.
Libs of TikTok added in a subsequent post, "Even if you type out the entire word no results autofill on Google @Google . We’re witnessing the erasure of history in real time. Unbelievable." Even if you type out the entire word no results autofill on Google @Google.
We’re witnessing the erasure of history in real time.
Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/PYUXqfmXHu
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 28, 2024
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican, did his own search to confirm and said that he would be launching “an official inquiry” into Google over the results. 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
“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?” Marshall wrote in a post on X. “I’ll be making an official inquiry into Google this week – I look forward to their response.”
Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in on the platform, asking why "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
"We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable," Trump Jr. added.
A Google spokesperson claimed in a statement provided to the Daily Caller that no “manual action taken on these predictions.”
“There was no manual action taken on these predictions. Our systems have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, which were working as intended prior to this horrific event occurring. 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. Following this terrible act, people turned to Google to find high quality information– we connected them with helpful results, and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson told the outlet.
Trump was shot in the ear by an attempted assassin on July 13 at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
One rally attendee was fatally shot and killed and two others were critically injured, but have since been released from the hospital.
