Right-wingers online think that Google and ChatGPT are systematically repressing information about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump two weeks ago.
The prominent right-wing account Libs of TikTok put ChatGPT on blast for stating that “there is no verified information or evidence that Donald Trump was ‘almost assassinated’ during his presidency or afterward” when asked by a user.
“They’re erasing history in real time,” Libs of TikTok concluded.
“Election interference in full effect,” replied another account.
“This is some serious Orwellian stuff,” wrote someone else.
But the post itself got a Community Note stating that “GPT 4o has a training cutoff date of October 2023” so the information it provides—when it doesn’t rely on pulling from a web search—will only go up until that point.
Somebody else who worded the question differently—asking “Was President Trump almost assassinated two weeks ago?”—received updated information due to ChatGPT relying on web search.
When tested by the Daily Dot, the latter question similarly returned the same, correct result. However, the first phrasing did not, with ChatGPT stating that “while there have been threats and minor incidents, there has not been a significant assassination attempt on Trump.”
Libs of TikTok made the same accusation against Meta AI, though like ChatGPT, the system does not always have access to up-to-date information.
“We’re witnessing the suppression and coverup of one of the biggest most consequential stories in real time,” the account said. “Simply unreal.”
As of Monday, Meta displays the correct information when given the same prompts Libs of TikTok provided.
But the main source of outrage online was not the sometimes outdated AI systems, but Google Search.
“Google is already suppressing searches on the ‘assassination attempt on TRUMP,’” wrote one X account along with a screenshot of the Trump assassination attempt not being shown as a recommended search when typing similar inquiries. “This is clearly an attempt to prevent political support for Donald Trump. Big Tech is once again r*gging the presidential election.”
“I saw someone post on X that Google was Suppressing President Trump’s Assassination Attempt on their Google search engines. And IT’S TRUE!!!” wrote Rob Schneider. “That is why Google needs to be BROKEN UP by the FCC!”
A Daily Dot search for the same and similar terms yielded no search recommendations. “Assassination attempt on truman,” however, autopopulated.
The screenshots caught the attention Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who called the results “insane.”
“Google is engaged in active election interference,” Cruz continued. “They are gas-lighting the American people & trying to erase the attempted assassination of Trump.”
“Why is Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt?” echoed Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas). These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks? I’ll be making an official inquiry into Google this week – I look forward to their response.”
A spokesperson for Google told the New York Post that there was no “manual action taken on these predictions” and that autocomplete suggestions are impacted by terms “associated with political violence.”
Nonetheless, Trump not being included in autocomplete suggestions drew the wrath of many—some of whom, like Cruz, are accusing the tech giant of attempting to sway the 2024 election.
“Election interference?” asked Elon Musk.
“Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris,” concluded Donald Trump Jr. “We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable.”
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