Google to promote Trump's State of the Union address on homepage after bias spat
Google will promote President Trump’s State of the Union address on its homepage on Tuesday, months after he accused the tech giant of political bias over purported differences in its handling of past speeches by former President Barack Obama.
Google’s homepage will feature promotional banners in the hours before the State of the Union address, as well as links to live coverage of the event, a company representative confirmed to FOX Business. YouTube will air live streams of the speech on several media channels, as well as the Democratic response.
“Key moments throughout U.S. presidential history have been captured on YouTube, from visiting American troops and celebrating life’s achievements, to taking the oath of office and hosting world leaders,” YouTube spokesperson Brandon Feldman said in a blog post. “As President Trump begins his third year in office, this tradition continues.”
Trump’s State of the Union address will stream live at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The White House’s YouTube page will also carry the event live.
Trump has repeatedly accused Google and other leading tech companies of expressing political bias against conservative voices. The president posted a video last August with the hashtag “#StopTheBias,” accusing Google of promoting each of Obama’s State of the Union addresses on its home page while failing to do the same for Trump's speeches.
Google disputed Trump’s claim, noting that it did feature a live stream of Trump’s address last year on its homepage.
“On January 30 2018, we highlighted the livestream of President Trump’s State of the Union on the google.com homepage,” the company said in a statement last August. “We have historically not promoted the first address to Congress by a new President, which is technically not a State of the Union address. As a result, we didn’t include a promotion on google.com for this address in either 2009 or 2017.”
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Democrat Stacey Abrams, who lost a tightly contested gubernatorial race in Georgia during the 2018 election cycle, will deliver the Democratic response to Trump’s speech.