U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden demanded answers in a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai about the Kamala Harris campaign’s use of Google search ads to manipulate news headlines.
According to Gooden (TX-5), Google is allowing the Kamala Harris campaign to buy ads that “mislead readers by linking to news stories with altered headlines that appear favorable to the vice president.”
Without consent from the companies involved, this “strategy” creates the impression that particular media outlets endorse Harris.
Calling Google’s actions “yet another disturbing example of election interference by the world’s largest search engine,” Gooden sees the manipulation of news headlines as “a deliberate attempt to mislead voters by falsely suggesting endorsements from major news publications.”
“Google has a disturbing track record of implicit bias and election interference that overwhelmingly benefits one political party,” Gooden stated.
“If Google is unable or unwilling to take basic steps to safeguard the integrity of our elections, I will work with my colleagues to use every tool at our disposal to ensure accountability,” he added.
Gooden’s letter emphasizes Google’s bias against former President Donald Trump and the many attempts by the company to obstruct Trump’s ongoing presidential campaign and censor stories about the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
Specifically, Gooden noted examples of biased Google search results, such as searches for “President Trump,” which returned favorable stories on Kamala Harris first, and searches for “President Donald” failing to show President Trump’s name in Autocomplete.
“Google interfered in the 2020 election through the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story,” Gooden stated in a post on X.
“Now they appear to be interfering through shadow banning Trump-related searches & allowing Kamala Harris to manipulate article headlines. This cannot continue,” he said.
Google has been accused of questionable practices before.
As Texas Scorecard reported in early August, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that Google’s business practices illegally inhibited competition and violated federal antitrust laws.
In December 2023, Google’s anticompetitive practices also resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement.
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