US: Republicans accuse Google of ‘election interference’; company says ‘glitch’ being fixed

The tech giant Google is facing a backlash from supporters of Donald Trump who are accusing it of generating biased search results in favour of the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris.

Voters are relying on the search engine for real-time information on election results, poll booth locations, and timings on the day of elections.

Also Read: LIVE | US election: Republicans take Senate; Trump wins 2 swing states, leads in 5

There have been complaints that users who searched for “Where can I vote for Trump” received less helpful results compared to those who searched for “Where can I vote for Harris”.

Those searching for Trump’s voting locations got a list of stories and links, while users searching for Harris’s voting locations were immediately shown a link to Democracy Works and Voting Information Project, which allowed them to input their address and find their nearest polling station.

Discrepancy due to simple mistake: Google

Google acknowledged that there was a problem, and said it was due to a glitch that was being fixed.

The tech giant also clarified that the discrepancy was due to a simple mistake, explaining that “Harris” was the name of a county in Texas, and the search results gave information about polling stations in that county.

“Happens for Vance too, because it’s also the name of a county,” added the company.

Also Read: ‘Google created illegal search monopoly', says US court in landmark ruling

However, some users pointed out that even when they entered addresses that were not in Harris, Texas, they were still given information about their nearest polling station.

Google assured users that a solution was on the way, and said, “Note that very few people actually search for voting places this way.”

Google accused of ‘Democratic bias’

This is not the first time that Donald Trump and his supporters have had issues with Google, and have accused it in the past of having a Democratic bias.

In July this year, they accused the Sundar Pichai-led company of suppressing information about the failed assassination bid on Trump. YouTube has also faced criticism for restricting access to the full interview of Trump by podcaster Joe Rogan, which Rogan later clarified was not an issue.

A few weeks ago, the Republican presidential candidate had threatened that he might make the Justice Department go after Google with criminal charges if he won the election. He accused the company of showing negative news about him but not about the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Also Read: Trump all the way? What possibly worked for the Republican as Harris stares at defeat

“It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris,” he posted on the Truth Social app.

“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections. If not, and subject to the laws of our country, I will request their prosecution, when I win the Election and become President of the United States,” continued Donald Trump.