Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. have joined forces in accusing Google of election interference and bias against former President Donald Trump. Musk recently criticized Google on X/Twitter, alleging that the tech giant’s search engine is biased in favor of Joe Biden. He shared data showing that Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, was a major donor to Biden’s 2020 campaign, while Trump’s top donors were from the US Postal Service.
Probably just a coincidence that Alphabet (Google) employees were the top donors to Biden https://t.co/H02dxmKPkL pic.twitter.com/tIj0THeTVc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024
Musk’s criticism followed an accusation that Google’s search suggestions omitted Trump’s name when searching for terms related to assassination attempts, despite other former presidents appearing in the results. Musk suggested that this was intentional censorship.
Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump!
Election interference? pic.twitter.com/dJzgVAAFZA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024
Trump Jr. echoed these concerns, claiming that Google was covering up news of his father’s assassination attempt at a campaign event. He accused Big Tech of trying to influence the election to benefit Kamala Harris.
Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris. We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable. https://t.co/gWDbFGaHI7
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 28, 2024
Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Roger Marshall also weighed in, criticizing Google for allegedly trying to erase significant events and promising official inquiries.
Google responded by expressing surprise at the claims and clarifying that its Autocomplete feature is designed to prevent suggestions associated with political violence. The company stated it is working on updates to improve the system while continuing to provide accurate information to users.