Former US President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Google of displaying only negative stories about him and pledged to prosecute the tech giant if he returns to the White House. Trump made the accusation without providing any evidence in a post on his Truth Social platform, where he also claimed that the search engine shows only positive articles about his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump is set to face Harris in the November 5 presidential elections.
"This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections," Trump wrote in his post. "If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the election."
The post came after a conservative group reported on what it found when searching for "Donald Trump presidential race 2024." Google responded to an AFP inquiry, stating, "Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of search for relevant and common search queries." The company emphasized that the report looked at a single rare search term on a single day a few weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates' websites ranked in the top results on Google.
Google has consistently maintained that it does not manipulate search results to favor any political candidate. The company does not disclose the inner workings of the software that powers its search engine. However, factors known to influence search results for news stories include the timeliness and popularity of topics.
Trump is currently embroiled in numerous criminal and civil cases, facing accusations ranging from sexual abuse and paying hush money to a porn star, to interfering with the 2020 election and attempting to thwart the peaceful transition of power after President Joe Biden defeated him.
