House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has initiated an investigation into allegations that Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) censored accurate information about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and the Trump campaign.
The Committee’s concerns were sparked by reports that Meta’s AI assistant and Google Search’s Autocomplete function generated inaccurate or irrelevant information related to the assassination attempt. Comer has expressed long-standing concerns about the influence of large technology companies on public opinion, particularly in light of a pattern of speech suppression and censorship on social media platforms.
In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Comer demanded answers about the censorship of factual information. He emphasized the importance of reliable information during presidential election seasons, stating that Americans rely on prominent internet search engines like Google to gather news and information about national politics and events.
Comer’s letter to Pichai specifically highlighted concerns about Google’s Autocomplete function, which allegedly omitted the recent assassination attempt on Trump’s life from its list of automatically generated search suggestions. Instead, users reported that the function produced results for failed assassination attempts on former Presidents Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, as well as historical figures like Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The Committee has requested documents and information from Google to assist in its investigation, seeking to understand how the company designs its Search product and Autocomplete feature.
Meanwhile, Google has attributed a separate issue to a “glitch” that allowed the Harris campaign to manipulate news headlines used in advertisements, making them appear favorable to her positions without clearly indicating the edits.
