Elon Musk accuses Google of Donald Trump 'search ban'

By Dilara Hamit

Elon Musk claimed on X that Google imposed a "search ban" on former US President Donald Trump, posting an image of a Google search box with "President Donald" typed.

Musk referenced the Google autocomplete issue Sunday. "Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump! Election interference?" he wrote.

Google responded and said autocomplete is designed to offer shortcuts for common search terms and that users can still search for specific queries, even if they are not suggested by autocomplete.

"We're looking into these anomalies and working on improvements, which we hope to roll out soon," it said in a statement. "Our autocomplete systems are dynamic, so predictions will change based on common and trending queries."

The autocomplete feature suggested "Donald Duck" and "President Donald Regan" on Sunday but failed to suggest "President Donald Trump.

Google responded to CBS MoneyWatch and attributed the issue to "anomalies" affecting autocomplete functionality for searches related to several former presidents and the current vice president.

For example, a search for "Vice President K" returned results such as "William R. King," a US vice president in 1853. "Vice president Kakegurui," an anime character, but did not suggest “Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Google did not detail the anomalies but said it was technical and denied manual alterations to autocomplete.

The glitches highlight growing concerns about the influence of tech platforms on the 2024 presidential election in the US, especially with the proliferation of deepfakes and AI-generated content that could spread misinformation.

Musk, who endorsed Trump and pledged to financially support his campaign, previously shared an AI-generated parody video on X that mimicked Harris's voice. Initially, he did not disclose the video as a parody but later clarified it was intended as satire.

Google's autocomplete was suggesting "Donald Trump" by Monday for searches beginning with "President Donald."