The counsel for Google parent company Alphabet told the House Judiciary Committee that its autocomplete algorithm prevented users from seeing search results about the attempted Donald Trump assassination attempt at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13 due to a prohibition against searches for political violence.
Other similar “errors” were also responsible for not giving autocomplete suggestions when “President Donald” was typed in or giving users stories about Vice President Kamala Harris when searching for him.
“The attorney said the bugs were fixed after they were brought to Google’s attention,” National Review reported.
The response followed a letter sent by Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday highlighting the issues.
“The Committee and Select Subcommittee [on the Weaponization of the Federal Government] ‘s oversight has shown how the federal government has coerced or colluded with technology, social media, and other companies, including Alphabet, to moderate content online,” Jordan wrote.
“Recent reporting has indicated that Google may now be interfering in the 2024 presidential election by censoring information about former President Donald Trump’s ongoing campaign for the presidency, including relating to the July 13 assassination attempt on him in Pennsylvania.
“In response to the Committee and Select Subcommittee’s oversight, your counsel provided the Committee and Select Subcommittee with non-public information about Google’s issues with Search and Autocomplete and the company’s efforts to correct them, in addition to offering a private briefing to the Committee and Select Subcommittee this week.”
Google’s counsel offered somewhat unconvincing explanations for the “errors” that we reported on last month.
Even Elon Musk noticed:
Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024
Election interference? pic.twitter.com/dJzgVAAFZA
Jordan noted that Google’s counsel reportedly admitted to the committee that “predictions for queries about the assassination attempt against former President Trump … should have appeared but didn’t.”
The counsel blamed protections for political violence, which were “out of date.”
When it came to Trump’s name not showing up in autocomplete, counsel said “that this particular issue was caused by a bug.”
“Bugs will occur” is essentially a big tech version of “mistakes were made.”
Jordan asked Pichai a series of questions he wanted answered, including, “How can the American people be confident that a similar issue, whether intentional or not, will not occur again?”
They can’t.
READ: Google Researcher Left Speechless When Joe Rogan Asks Simple Question on Privacy – WATCH
