Google’s omission of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump from its autocomplete feature has drawn criticism from both Elon Musk and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. As reported by Fox Business on Sunday, Google’s autocomplete feature did not include the July 13 attempt to gun down the Republican presidential candidate. Instead, users who typed in “assassination” were offered news about the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which initiated World War I. Searching for “Trump assassination attempt” yielded no suggestions.
This…is…insane.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 28, 2024
@Google is engaged in active election interference.
They are gas-lighting the American people & trying to erase the attempted assassination of Trump. pic.twitter.com/g2h8DzkDON
“This…is…insane,” Cruz posted on X. Do you think Google is working against Trump?
“[Google] is engaged in active election interference. They are gas-lighting the American people & trying to erase the attempted assassination of Trump,” he wrote.
Musk also noted that even basic searches for information on Trump were affected. “Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump! Election interference?” he wrote on X.
Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024
Election interference? pic.twitter.com/dJzgVAAFZA
The New York Post conducted its own test. “The Post performed a series of test Google searches with the last names of U.S. presidents who were killed or faced attempts on their lives followed by the letters ‘assassi’ to see what Autocomplete suggested, including John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt,” the Post wrote. “In each instance, a helpful list of recommended search terms related to the attempts on their lives sprang into view. However, when Trump’s name was used, Autocomplete offered no suggestions whatsoever,” the Post wrote.
Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said he does not plan to let the matter drop.
“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?” he wrote. “I’ll be making an official inquiry into [Google] this week — I look forward to their response,” he posted on X.
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?
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) July 28, 2024
I’ll be making an official inquiry into @google this week – I look forward… pic.twitter.com/GD5SOvvcdX
A Google representative stated that there was no “manual action taken on these predictions,” Fox reported. “Our systems have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, which were working as intended prior to this horrific event occurring,” the representative said. “We’re working on improvements to ensure our systems are more up to date,” the representative said, noting autocomplete is “just a tool to help people save time.” “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,” Google’s statement said.
