SAN FRANCISCO, California: On Friday, Donald Trump criticized Google for allegedly displaying only negative news about him, declaring that if he returns to the White House, he intends to pursue legal action against the tech giant.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump did not provide evidence to support his claims, asserting that the search engine favors positive narratives about his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and I hope the Justice Department will bring criminal charges against them for this obvious interference in elections,” he wrote. “If that doesn’t happen, I will seek their prosecution to the fullest extent of the law when I win the election.”
Trump’s comments came after a conservative organization reported its findings related to searches for “Donald Trump presidential race 2024.”
In response to an inquiry from AFP, Google stated, “Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top for relevant and common search queries.” They added, “This report focused on a rare search term from a specific day a few weeks ago, and even then, both candidates’ websites ranked among the top results on Google.”
The tech company has maintained that it does not alter search results to favor any particular political figure and does not reveal the details of the algorithms behind its widely-used search engine. However, it is known that various factors, such as the relevance and recency of topics, can affect the search results for news articles.
Trump is currently involved in several criminal and civil proceedings, facing serious allegations including sexual misconduct, distributing hush money to an adult film star, meddling in the 2020 election, and attempting to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power following his defeat by President Joe Biden.