Presidential
candidate and military veteran Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is suing Google,
claiming in her lawsuit that the company as “almost total control” over key
elements of elections.
Democratic presidential candidate and military veteran Rep.
Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is suing Google it was reported earlier today.
Gabbard’s complaint accuses Google of censoring the candidate at
the very moment when millions of Americans wanted to learn more about her. It
also accuses Google of sending Gabbard’s campaign emails to people’s Gmail spam
folders at a “disproportionately high rate.”
The campaign seeks a legal injunction against Google to prevent
further election meddling, as well as €44.99 million in damages.
The
Gabbard campaign’s legal complaint cites Breitbart News reporting to highlight
Google’s interference in the democratic process. The complaint cites the Google Tape, an hour-long recording of Google
executives’ reactions to the 2016 general election obtained by this reporter
and published by Breitbart News last September, and Google employees’ campaign to ban Breitbart from Google Ads,
an effort that was revealed by Breitbart News last year.
The legal
complaint argues that Google could have a nefarious impact on American
democracy if its behavior is allowed to continue unchecked. This is the
viewpoint of Dr. Robert Epstein, who says the Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe
will “go all out” to influence the 2020 election.
In her legal complaint, Gabbard states that Google has “almost
total control” over key elements of elections, stating:
In addition to Google’s overarching control over, and
restrictions on, American political speech generally, Google has a unique
and disturbing amount of influence over—and interest in—elections. In
fact, through its search, search advertising, and other monopolistic platforms,
Google has almost total control over important aspects of election speech and
election advertising. And Google is willing to exploit its control—as can be
seen in Google’s targeting of Tulsi Gabbard, a political opponent of the
company, through the Account.
In fact, Gabbard’s Account is not the first election advertising
that Google has interfered with. For example, in June 2018, Google announced
that it would no longer sell political ads for local races in Washington state.
Yet in reality, Google continued to sell such ads—thousands of dollars’ worth,
in fact—but only to certain campaigns. In short, Google’s alleged ban on ads
for local races in Washington state was selectively enforced. This misconduct
ultimately resulted in the Washington state attorney general prosecuting
Google, and Google settled case, agreeing to pay $217,000 to resolve its
liability.
In another section of the lawsuit, Gabbard notes the disparity
between Google’s donations to and support of different political campaigns, at
one point citing Dr. Robert Epstein, a senior research psychologist at the
American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. Gabbard’s lawsuit
states:
The disparity grew even more stark during the last presidential
election. Google employees gave $1.3 million to Hillary Clinton’s
presidential campaign, compared with $26,000 to the Trump campaign. What’s
more, Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet (Google’s parent company),
counseled Clinton on strategy during her presidential campaign, and
financed Civis Analytics, a startup which provided data and other technology
for her campaign.
Robert Epstein, a social psychologist and Internet researcher,
argues persuasively that Google’s pro-Clinton search bias may have shifted as
many as 2.6 million votes to Clinton during the 2016 election.
Gabbard issued a statement to Breitbart News on the lawsuit in
which she said: “Google’s discriminatory actions against my campaign are
reflective of how dangerous their complete dominance over internet search is,
and how the increasing dominance of big tech companies over our public
discourse threatens our core American values. This is a threat to free speech,
fair elections and to our democracy, and I intend to fight back on behalf of
all Americans.”
Read more
about the lawsuit here.
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