Trump vs. Google: A timeline of president's attacks since 2016
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is making a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to address allegations of anti-conservative bias with its social media platforms. Independent Women’s Forum Kelsey Harkness says conservatives have been raising the alarm over censorship on social media platforms.
The Trump administration’s lengthy feud with Google will be in the spotlight on Wednesday when the tech giant’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, addresses allegations of political bias on Capitol Hill.
President Trump has criticized Google on several occasions dating back to his time on the campaign trail ahead of the 2016 election. Google has denied Trump’s allegations that it suppresses conservative voices while promoting progressive viewpoints.
Pichai will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing titled “Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices.” The Google chief is also expected to answer questions on user data privacy and the company’s reported efforts to build a censored version of its search engine in China amid an ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and Beijing.
The hearing will occur one day after Google said it should shut down its social media platform, Google Plus, earlier than expected. The company discovered a bug that exposed the personal information of more than 52 million users, two months after revealing a separate glitch impacted 500,000 users.
FOX Business breaks down Trump’s public attacks against Google below.
Oct. 30, 2016
Trump accuses Google of “burying” news that the FBI has opened an investigation into 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for government business.
Aug. 28, 2018
Trump suggests that Google has “rigged” its search engine to only show news stories that were critical of his administration while suppressing conservative outlets.
At a subsequent press conference, Trump said his team had fielded “thousands of complaints” from the public about Google’s purported political bias.
“Yeah, I think Google has really taken advantage of a lot of people,” Trump said. “And I think that's a very serious thing, and it's a very serious charge. I think what Google and what others are doing -- if you look at what's going on at Twitter, if you look at what's going on in Facebook, they better be careful, because you can't do that to people. You can't do it. We have tremendous -- we have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in. And you just can't do that.”
Aug. 29, 2018
Trump doubles down on allegations of political bias at a White House event, arguing that Google, Facebook and Twitter were unfair to conservatives.
“Well, I think that Google and Facebook and Twitter, I think they treat conservatives and Republicans very unfairly,” Trump said. “I could tell you that I have personal experience; I have a lot of people on the various platforms.”
Aug. 30, 2018
Speaking at a political rally in Evansville, Indiana, Trump said Google and other social media companies are suppressing free speech.
“Look at social media. It's a thing called free speech rights,” Trump said. “You look at Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media giants. And I've made it clear that we, as a country, cannot tolerate political censorship, blacklisting, and rigged search results. And you know, it can go the other way, also.”
Nov. 15, 2018
Trump accuses Google, others of being “in favor of the Democrats.”