The House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into Google and Meta over allegations that the tech giants suppressed information about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
An inquiry was announced on Wednesday following accusations that Meta’s AI assistant dismissed the attack as “fictional” or failed to address it and that Google’s search engine omitted related search results.
Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) has sent letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, referencing recent reports from The Post. The letters demand detailed information on the companies’ algorithms and content moderation practices. “On behalf of the American people, the Committee is dedicated to fully understanding when and how information is being suppressed or modified,” Comer wrote to Pichai.
The investigation comes in the wake of a controversy involving Meta’s AI tool, which was reported to have incorrectly labelled a widely circulated photo of Trump—showing him raising his fist surrounded by Secret Service agents after the shooting—as misinformation. Facebook later admitted to the error and removed the misinformation label.
Additionally, Google’s autocomplete function drew scrutiny after it failed to suggest relevant results for the July 13 shooting attempt on Trump while providing suggestions for failed assassination attempts on other historical figures. Comer has requested information on how Google’s autocomplete feature processes newsworthy events and whether it aims to limit or preclude specific results.
In response to the investigation, Google stated that the autocomplete issue was due to outdated protections related to political violence and that updates are already being implemented. A Google representative noted, “Autocomplete wasn’t providing predictions for queries about the assassination attempt against former President Trump due to outdated systems. We’re working on improvements.”
Meta also responded, acknowledging that its AI assistant was initially programmed not to provide information on the assassination attempt to avoid disseminating potentially inaccurate details. Meta Vice President of Global Policy Joel Kaplan stated that the company has since updated its AI responses.
Former President Trump has fiercely criticized both companies, accusing them of censorship and election interference. On Truth Social, Trump called on his supporters to “go after” Meta and Google, describing their actions as part of an attempt to rig the election. He claimed, “Facebook has just admitted that it wrongly censored the Trump’ attempted assassination photo’ and got caught. Same thing for Google.”
A call to action accompanied Trump’s remarks: “Here we go again, another attempt at RIGGING THE ELECTION!!! GO AFTER META AND GOOGLE. LET THEM KNOW WE ARE ALL WISE TO THEM, WILL BE MUCH TOUGHER THIS TIME. MAGA2024!”
The House Oversight Committee’s investigation addresses concerns about potential bias and censorship by major technology companies, focusing on transparency and accountability in handling sensitive information.
