Trump threatens legal action against Google post-election

Former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, announced on Friday that he plans to pursue legal action against Google if he wins the November 5 election, accusing the company of showing only “negative stories” about him.

Trump, in his post on Truth Social, gave no evidence for his assertion about Google.

“It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about” Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Trump said.

“This is an illegal activity, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant interference of elections,” Trump said. “If not, and subject to the laws of our country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the election and become president of the United States.”

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump made a similar claim about Google in 2019, according to the Washington Post. He alleged in a series of posts on Twitter, now known as X, that Google favoured negative news stories about him in the 2016 presidential election, according to the Post. Google dismissed the claims at the time.

However, in recent weeks, some supporters of the former president have renewed the allegations. In July, days after an attempted assassination of Trump, billionaire Elon Musk, in a post on X, accused Google of having a search ban on the former president.

REUTERS