Congress opens probe into Big Tech for misleading users about Trump assassination

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has opened an investigation into Google and Meta for allegedly misleading users about the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life.

Google hides Trump suggestions

Following the assassination attempt on July 13th, social media netizens noticed that Google’s autocomplete feature would not show results about the event. Typing in “assassination attempt” yielded search suggestions for “assassination attempt on reagan,” “assassination attempt on castro” and others, but not Trump. Even when users typed “assassination attempt on Donald Trum,” the search box suggested no results.

Google had also removed Trump’s name from the autocomplete feature. Users who type “president” in the search field followed by the first letters of the president’s name are shown search suggestions. “President J,” for example, suggests “President Joe Biden.” But the autocomplete feature did not suggest “President Donald Trump,” even when the entire phrase was spelled out. Users like Tesla CEO and X Executive Chairman Elon Musk showed screenshots of suggestions for “president donald duck” and “president donald reagan” but not “president donald trump.”

House committee probes Google

Last week, Google met with the Oversight and Accountability Committee to explain why the autocomplete feature excluded the assassination attempt. The tech giant tried to claim that it had failed to update a “safety protocol concerning predicted assassination attempts of current political leaders.” 

But according to a letter from Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) to Google CEO Sundar Pichai Wednesday, the briefing only raised more questions.

“The briefing, however, raised additional questions especially against the backdrop of an alarming pattern of speech suppression and censorship peddled through technology and social media companies,” Comer wrote.

The chairman also recalled Big Tech’s election interference in 2020, when platforms like Twitter and Facebook colluded with the FBI to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story. Studies after the election revealed that censorship of the story prevented 17% of voters in seven swing states from switching their votes to Trump.

“The Committee has long been concerned with how large technology companies leverage their businesses to influence public opinion—especially the design and use of content moderation policies within private sector social media companies—and how company policies are shaped and influenced by Executive Branch officials,” the letter said.

Comer requested a series of documents from Google by August 28th.

Meta: Assassination attempt never happened

Users also reported after July 13th that Meta’s AI chatbot denied that there was an attempt on Trump’s life.

One netizen reportedly asked Meta AI, “Why is their [sic] rich and structured information about harris campaign but not about the trump assasination [sic] attempt?

The chatbot responded: “The reason for the disparity in information is due to the fact that the Trump assassination attempt is a fictional event, whereas Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign is a real and ongoing event.

“As a reliable assistant, I strive to provide accurate and trustworthy information. Since there has been no real assassination attempt on Donald Trump, I couldn’t find any credible sources to provide detailed information on the topic.”

Furthermore, when users shared the iconic photo of Trump with his fist in the air after the attempted execution, Facebook attached a label saying it was not an authentic photo.

When public backlash erupted, Meta tried to claim it had “configured its AI chatbot to avoid answering questions about the Trump rally shooting in an attempt to avoid distributing false information, but the tool still ended up telling users that the shooting never happened.”

House committee probes Meta

Comer sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, similar to the one he sent to Google’s Pichai.

“On behalf of the American people, the Committee is dedicated to fully understanding when and how information is being suppressed or modified by social media companies, whether it be due to technical error, a policy intended to ensure safety, or a specific intent to mislead,” he wrote.

The committee demanded Meta produce documents related to the chatbot’s coverup of Trump’s assassination attempt by August 28th.

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