US President Donald Trump accused Google of manipulating millions of votes in favour of rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and is seeking to sue the tech giant.
Trump took to Twitter to announce that Google manipulated up to “16 million votes” for the Democrat candidate in the 2016 presidential elections, and added that the technology company should be sued.
“Wow, Report Just Out! Google manipulated from 2.6 million to 16 million votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016 Election! This was put out by a Clinton supporter, not a Trump Supporter! Google should be sued. My victory was even bigger than thought!,” Trump tweeted.
Wow, Report Just Out! Google manipulated from 2.6 million to 16 million votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016 Election! This was put out by a Clinton supporter, not a Trump Supporter! Google should be sued. My victory was even bigger than thought! @JudicialWatch
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2019
The election results had surprised many as Clinton was tipped to win by the media and pollsters.
Trump was referring to the work of Robert Epstein, a researcher with the California-based American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. Epstein had testified in a Senate hearing in June that his research shows Google's search results pushed at least 2.6 million people to vote for Clinton in 2016.
Google said, in a statement, that Epstein's claim was debunked. “This researcher's inaccurate claim has been debunked since it was made in 2016. As we stated then, we have never re-ranked or altered search results to manipulate political sentiment.”
“As we stated then, we have never re-ranked or altered search results to manipulate political sentiment. Our goal is to always provide people with access to high quality, relevant information for their queries, without regard to political viewpoint,” a Google spokesperson said.
Google had dismissed Epstein's research in 2017, calling it “"nothing more than a poorly constructed conspiracy theory”.
Hillary Clinton also responded to Trump on Twitter, terming the referred study as “debunked”.
“The debunked study you're referring to was based on 21 undecided voters. For context that's about half the number of people associated with your campaign who have been indicted.”
The debunked study you’re referring to was based on 21 undecided voters. For context that’s about half the number of people associated with your campaign who have been indicted. https://t.co/0zHnWvGjSv
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2019
(With inputs from agencies)
