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What if the scenario 2020 was repeating itself – this time with deeper consequences for American society and the declared enemies of the White House ? This is what the management of Alphabet must probably be assessing at this moment. Donald Trump has indeed just shared his wish to close the most used search engine in the world.< /p>
Comments that follow the assassination attempt targeting the 2024 US presidential candidate on July 13. Which among other things triggered this new chant from the former president against Google. Here is exactly what Donald Trump said:
“Google has been very bad. They have been very irresponsible and I have the feeling that Google is about to shut down because I don't think Congress is going to accept it. I really don't think so. Google should be careful,”, the candidate explained on the sidelines of an interview on the American conservative news channel Fox News.
No “censorship”, according to Google, but there was still a small (general) bug
It must be said that a little earlier this week, Donald Trump once again accused the firm's algorithm of censoring content on his news or those related to his political camp. A supposed favoritism that did not a priori translate into facts, since the news was indeed widely retransmitted online, without the “censorship” put forward by the former tenant of the White House.
And this, including in the Google News section of the most visited site in the world, according to what we were able to see ourselves at the time. Google, the target of these comments, denies these allegations. However, knowing that it is being closely monitored by the authorities during election periods, the firm has nevertheless admitted to having limited the autocomplete function, without any particular link to the period – but rather in connection with its general conditions.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The autocomplete implemented in the search engine's search field as well as in the address bar of Google Chrome did not activate when users entered certain keywords such as “assassination” or “shooter Donald Trump” among other examples. This did not prevent them from searching for these terms – Google simply explains that it filters suggestions, via autocomplete, of terms related to ongoing political violence.
The firm admits, however, that this filter was not updated quickly enough just after the shooting that occurred during Donald Trump's speech in Butler, Pennsylvania. Giving rise to the impression that these news items were less well highlighted than others when the Internet user was directly searching for information on the subject.
“Over the past few days, a few people on 𝕏 have posted allegations that [Google] search ‘censors’ or ‘excludes’ certain particular terms. This is not what is happening and we want to set the record straight. These posts are actually about our autocomplete feature, which predicts searches [as you type, editor's note] to help you save time. Autocomplete. , Google responds. Which assures that it quickly fixed the problem.
The company does not stop there, however: “Second, people posted about Autocomplete not returning relevant predictions for ‘President Donald’. This particular issue was a bug that affected the entire political spectrum, while also affecting [searches] for several former presidents, such as former President Obama”, while accompanying the argument with a screenshot of the feature.
Again, the company says it has since applied an update that fixes the issue. And Google concludes: “While our systems work very well most of the time, you may find predictions that may be unexpected or imperfect, and bugs may occur. Many platforms, including the ones we are now posting to [namely 𝕏, editor's note] will show strange or incomplete predictions, [in their own implementation of predictions, editor's note]”.
And to add : “for our part, when problems are reported, we implement improvements – so you can find what you are looking for, quickly and easily. We appreciate this feedback.
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