Google is back to its old censorship tricks, leaving no room for MAGA sense of humor.
Last Friday, Google made some waves on X when it was caught censoring an ad supporting former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign multiple times. Google reportedly restored the ad the following day, claiming it had flagged it“in error.” MRC President Brent Bozell decried this sorry excuse. “This is unacceptable,” he said. “Why did Google remove the ad from Trump’s Super PAC in the first place? This is a continuation of a campaign against conservatives.”
Bozell’s reaction came after Google censored a Trump ad scheduled to run from May 1 to May 3, according to screenshots of Google’s Ad Library posted by Andrew Arenge, a director of operations for the Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
The ad depicted a fictional phone call between a Biden campaign aide and a voter. “Everything costs more. Food, gas, rent,” the voter complained. The campaign aide was piped back, touting Biden’s disastrous immigration policy. “OK, but Biden’s helping pay rent for newcomers to America from around the world,” the campaign aide responded.
The voter was not impressed, saying “You mean, illegal immigrants? I’m struggling to pay my bills, but Biden’s paying rent for illegals? They get handouts, and I’m paying for it.” The voter added, “Things were better before Biden. I’m voting for Trump!”
Trump’s Super PAC is running this ad in rural Georgia counties targeting Black men. pic.twitter.com/mcRMkGsqLN
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) May 3, 2024
Google’s recent bout of censorship should come as no surprise and must be called out for what it is. “This is election interference, pure and simple. Congress must investigate @Google for this and the other 41 cases of election interference we found since 20[0]8,” Bozell posted on X Friday.
This is election interference, pure and simple.
Congress must investigate @Google for this and the other 41 cases of election interference we found since 2018. https://t.co/Gd1hEF1xJA
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) May 3, 2024
MRC Free Speech America released a study in March detailing 41 times Google was caught interfering in U.S. elections, beginning in 2008, intensifying in 2016 and continuing into 2024. The platform has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to engage in election-interfering tactics including creating AI that has a bias against certain candidates, launching autofill manipulation and burying candidates’ campaign websites in their search results.
But Google always seems to either ignore the problem or frame it as an unfortunate, albeit unintentional, “error.” As Bozell described it, “When Google gets caught interfering in elections, they reverse themselves claiming an ‘error’ occurred.” This happened in 2020 when the platforms suspended then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-HI) ad account during the height of her popularity, and in 2008 when Google’s blogging platform flagged then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) supporters.
And the censorship always seems to impact candidates who step in the way of the most extreme leftist candidate, regardless of party—and Google has yet to answer for its ongoing election interference.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.