Tulsi sues Google for election meddling

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Finally, an election meddling konspiracy theory that is believable.

Democratic presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard announced Thursday she is suing Google for alleged "election interference," claiming the tech giant suspended her campaign's Google Ads account just after the first Democratic presidential primary debate.
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“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," Gabbard said in a statement. "This is a threat to free speech, fair elections and to our democracy, and I intend to fight back on behalf of all Americans.”

Specifically, Gabbard claimed that multiple news reports indicated she was the most searched candidate on Google following the first Democratic primary debate on June 26. "Then, without any explanation, Google suspended Tulsi's Google Ads account," her office said in a statement, that called the move "arbitrary and capricious."

"Big Tech’s dominance represents a clear and present danger to our democracy," Gabbard's team said.

Google says it was nothing nefarious. It was just a glitch, but consider what the "glitch" was.

“We have automated systems that flag unusual activity on all advertiser accounts—including large spending changes—in order to prevent fraud and protect our customers,” a Google spokesperson said. “In this case, our system triggered a suspension and the account was reinstated shortly thereafter. We are proud to offer ad products that help campaigns connect directly with voters, and we do so without bias toward any party or political ideology.”

In its lawsuit, the Gabbard campaign alleged foul play:

“The explanation for Google’s suspension of the Account at exactly the wrong time is no great mystery: Google (or someone at Google) didn’t want Americans to hear Tulsi Gabbard’s speech, so it silenced her. This has happened time and time against across Google platforms. Google controls one of the largest and most important forums for political speech in the entire world, and it regularly silences voices it doesn’t like, and amplifies voices it does.”

So an outsider presidential campaign suddenly getting more popular will trigger a suspension?
I seriously doubt that Tulsi can prove her claim, but something is rotten in Denmark.

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worth of random "Russia!!!" facebook ads had in 2016.

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@entrepreneur anti-Trump, and half of which was placed after the election.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

@wokkamile Like a Facebook page for animal lovers. Somehow the NY Times saw this as villainous. Russiagate really shows the capacity of the neoliberal pseudoleft for idiocy and self-deception.

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for Google to have an actual human reviewing any suspensions that would affect ANY politicians running for national office. Blaming it on the computer driven algorithm is a totally lame excuse, right up there with “my dog ate my homework”.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49 They most likely have an actual human reviewing suspensions that would affect ANY left wing politicians running for national office. Prob. paid well, too.

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" systems that flag unusual activity on all advertiser accounts —including large spending changes— ".

Yeah, right. Because this happens all the time :
-- "Hey, the computer says we have a customer that wants to give us a shitload of advertising dollars, what should I do?"
** "Fuck it, let the computer handle it. What could happen?"

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Is the lawsuit by the campaign committee? Would the $50 mil go into that? Imagine a $50 million injection into the campaign! :-O

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@tle at the same time one votes for one's AIPAC constituents.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp
She is suing Google for limiting her freedom of speech, via ads,
but isn’t that also what she voted for to do to all Americans on BDS?

Clearly she has some splaining to do.

Or we are not all seeing things eye to eye, or thru hers.

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@Sirena Google effectively muzzled her, the BDS bill was more in the way of intimidation. I didn't see anything in it that directly stopped free speech, "only" the full weight of the U.S. government brought down on "those nasty BDS people".

It was really cute how they added a phrase to the effect that "this bill doesn't attack free speech". Yeah, right.

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@tle
There. Fixed the gun violence problem.

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@tle legislation and sorry to see Tulsi and a few other worthies fall in line.

That said, there is no legal intrusion on free speech as this was just a nonbinding resolution, not a bill with legal teeth.

So for the moment, there is still free speech in the land.

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@tle
Could she ‘personally’ gain from this or would it go into her war chest?
If the latter, would she suddenly become the new DNC darling?
How many donors now does $50 Million count for???

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@Sirena

At the DNC auction house electoral college.

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@QMS I should have said, 'unique donors'.

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@tle sent back to lower court, bumped up to higher court, then to the Supremes and in 10 or 15 years get thrown out. Think Exxon Valdez.

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earthling1's picture

the Russians control Google.
s/

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.