- Elon Musk questions Google's search results for Donald Trump, suggesting possible "election interference".
- Users report difficulty finding recent information about an alleged assassination attempt on Trump, instead seeing historical results.
- Google denies manual interference, stating built-in protections against political violence-related suggestions are functioning as intended.
Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk has been publicly vocal about Donald Trump’s bid in the presidential election race.
And in a recent event, Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) and expressed his concerns, stating, "Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump! Election interference?"
The controversy has sparked debates about possible biases and election interference by major tech companies, raising concerns about the role of search engines in shaping public information and perception during critical periods.
Reports indicate that users have complained about Google not showing relevant search results for the assassination attempt on Trump on July 13. Instead, Google displayed historical information about other assassination attempts, such as those on Ronald Reagan and Archduke Ferdinand.
This led to an outcry on social media, with Donald Trump Jr. accusing Google of intentionally interfering in the election to benefit Kamala Harris.
In response to the controversy, a Google spokesperson told Fox News that no "manual actions" were taken to influence search suggestions. They explained that their systems have built-in protections against autocomplete suggestions related to political violence, which were working as intended.
The spokesperson defended the autocomplete feature as a tool to "help people save time" while still allowing users to search for any topic they choose.
Edited by Harshajit Sarmah