Did Big Tech try to bury or misrepresent information about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump? The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has initiated an investigation into reports concerning the accuracy and relevance of information generated by Meta’s AI assistant and Google’s “Autocomplete” function.
The inquiry stems from growing concerns over the role of the leading technology companies in influencing public opinion, particularly in the context of an alleged assassination attempt on Trump, which occurred July 13 in Pennsylvania.
In letters addressed to the CEOs of Meta and Google, Committee chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky expressed the committee’s worries about potential speech suppression and censorship by technology and social media companies. Concerns have intensified following reports that both platforms provided misleading or unrelated information when queried about the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump.
“Americans rely upon prominent internet search engines such as Google to gather news and information critical to their understanding of national politics and events—and never more so than during a Presidential election season,” wrote Comer to Google CEO Pichai. “On behalf of the American people, the Committee is dedicated to fully understanding when and how information is being suppressed or modified, whether it be due to technical error, a policy intended to ensure safety, or a specific intent to mislead.
“Google users report that autocompleted search prompts related to the assassination attempt of President Trump produced results for failed assassination attempts of former Presidents, including Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan—or even assassinations of historical figures such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand—but omitted from the list of automatically generated search suggestions the recent attempt on President Trump’s life,” Comer wrote.
“The Committee has long been concerned with how large technology companies leverage their businesses to influence public opinion—especially the design and use of content moderation policies within private sector social media companies—and how company policies are shaped and influenced by Executive Branch officials,” Comer wrote to Meta CEO Zuckerberg. “When asked if the assassination on President Trump was fictional, Meta’s bot responded that there ‘was no real assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I strive to provide accurate and reliable information, but sometimes mistakes can occur.’ The Committee requests that Meta produce all internal policies or any other documents related to how the Meta AI chatbot is designed, reviewed, managed, and updated.”
Facebook has already admitted that it censored the photo of Trump after the bullet struck his ear and drew blood.
“This was an error,” wrote Facebook Communications Director Dani Levi wrote on X/Twitter in July. “This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake.”
The committee wants to look at certain documents and information to assist its investigation and better understand how Google designs its Search product and Autocomplete feature.
The Committee is tying to understand the underlying design and operation of Big Tech’s search product and autocomplete features, with a focus on whether the exclusion of the Trump incident was due to technical error, safety policies, or intentional manipulation.
This investigation comes on the heels of previous controversies involving Big Tech’s handling of politically sensitive information. In August 2022, Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook had suppressed a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop following FBI warnings about potential misinformation. This led to the advancement and eventual passage of H.R. 140, the Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, which prohibits federal employees from pressuring private entities to censor lawful speech. The Hunter Biden laptop story turned out to be true.
Read the letter to Google CEO Pichai here.
Read the letter to Meta CEO Zuckerberg here.
Never happened.
Looks like the dark ones did not get the headshot they were looking for. Would have been an open and shut case with their patsy quickly eliminated. However, they missed their shot and now we are witnessing the cover-up. Seems the DS is running out of ammo. Beware a cornered animal as it may thrash about in violence in attempts to escape accountability.
Keep your head on a swivel and keep your voice clear as you call out the corrupt around you.