Representative Tulsi Gabbard, the long-shot presidential candidate from Hawaii, said in a federal lawsuit that Google infringed on her free speech when it briefly suspended her campaign’s advertising account after the first Democratic debate in June.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in a federal court in Los Angeles, is believed to be the first time a presidential candidate has sued a major technology firm.
In a twist that reflects Ms. Gabbard’s unorthodox political views, the claim that her speech was stifled by Google is similar to complaints made over the last year in Republican circles. Few Democrats have raised similar concerns.
Big tech companies like Google are getting increasing scrutiny by lawmakers and regulators around the world for a wide variety of issues, including their influence on political debate, their handling of consumer data, and the aggressive way they compete with smaller companies.
A day before the Gabbard lawsuit was filed, Facebook said the Federal Trade Commission had opened a formal antitrust investigation into its business practices. Earlier in the day, the F.T.C. announced that Facebook was fined a record $5 billion for deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal data.
Tulsi Now Inc., the campaign committee for Ms. Gabbard, said Google suspended the campaign’s advertising account for six hours on June 27 and June 28, obstructing its ability to raise money and spread her message to potential voters.
Unlock more free articles. Create an account or log in After the first Democratic debate, Ms. Gabbard was briefly the most searched-for candidate on Google. Her campaign wanted to capitalize on the attention she was receiving by buying ads that would have placed its website at the top of search results for her name.
The lawsuit also said the Gabbard campaign believed its emails were being placed in spam folders on Gmail at “a disproportionately high rate” when compared with emails from other Democratic candidates.
Read the Complaint » Ms. Gabbard, the long-shot presidential candidate from Hawaii, is arguing that Google infringed on her free speech when it briefly suspended her campaign’s advertising account after the first Democratic debate in June.
“Google’s arbitrary and capricious treatment of Gabbard’s campaign should raise concerns for policymakers everywhere about the company’s ability to use its dominance to impact political discourse, in a way that interferes with the upcoming 2020 presidential election,” the lawsuit said.
Ms. Gabbard and her campaign are seeking an injunction against Google from further meddling in the election and damages of at least $50 million.
Google has automated systems that flag unusual activity on advertiser accounts — including large spending changes — to prevent fraud, said Jose Castaneda, a spokesman for the company.
“In this case, our system triggered a suspension and the account was reinstated shortly thereafter,” he said. “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.”
No other campaigns have publicly claimed that Google has suspended their advertising accounts.
Interest in Ms. Gabbard, who has served four terms in the House and is an Army National Guard veteran, spiked after the debate. She entered the presidential race as a relative unknown and is still polling at less than 1 percent, according to New York Times polling averages.
But her appeal has crossed traditional party lines. She has drawn support from both the right and the left because of a staunch antiwar message. She has also received favorable coverage from influential conservative news media like Drudge Report, Fox News and Breitbart.
Ms. Gabbard’s campaign is historic even in a race with many potential firsts. She was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives when she was 21, becoming the youngest woman to join a United States state legislature. When she was elected as representative for Hawaii in 2012, she was the first Samoan-American and first Hindu member of Congress.
Her political views are unusual among Democratic candidates. She has a history of making anti-gay statements and worked for an anti-gay advocacy group run by her father. (She has since apologized and said her past views were wrong.)
And she has tapped into increasingly bipartisan passion: wariness of big tech. The lawsuit filed Thursday said Ms. Gabbard had joined Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is also vying to be the Democratic Party nominee, in calling for large tech companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon to be broken up.
“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,” Ms. 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.”
ImageSupporters of Ms. Gabbard put up banners outside the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame Celebration in Cedar Rapids in June. Supporters of Ms. Gabbard put up banners outside the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame Celebration in Cedar Rapids in June.CreditJordan Gale for The New York Times While assertions of tech firms tipping the scales against political opponents are largely unproven, the lawsuit taps into concern that tech companies aren’t transparent about how decisions are made and they aren’t held accountable when things go wrong.
Last week, senators homed in on Google in a subcommittee hearing about censorship in search. The hearing aired many largely unproven claims that Google tilts search results against conservative viewpoints.
“Google’s control over what people hear, read, watch and see is unprecedented,” said Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican from Texas who led the subcommittee. “With that market power, Google can and often does control our discourse.”
Gabbard campaign workers sent an email to a Google representative on June 27 at 9:30 p.m. once they realized the account had been suspended. In emails reviewed by The New York Times, the campaign sent Google a screenshot of a notice of suspension for “problems with billing information or violations of our advertising policies.”
The account was reactivated at 3:30 a.m. on June 28. In the email announcing that it had reinstated the account, Google wrote that the company temporarily suspended the campaign’s account to verify billing information and policy compliance, but offered no other explanation for what had happened.
The campaign said it had opened the Google advertising account in February and had bought ads on Google search before the suspension. It said there was no problem with its billing information and that it had not violated Google’s terms of service.
“To this day, Google has not provided a straight answer — let alone a credible one — as to why Tulsi’s political speech was silenced when millions of people wanted to hear from her,” the lawsuit said.
Without the ads, the Tulsi 2020 website, which has links for donations and information about the goals of her candidacy, appears in the first page of search results for “Tulsi Gabbard.” But it is below stories and videos about her — selected by a Google algorithm — and after her Wikipedia page, her Twitter profile and her congressional website.
Roughly half of the candidates who participated in the first Democratic debates have bought ads to appear at the top of search results for their names.
With the exception of Senator Bernie Sanders, who is one of the leaders in fund-raising among the Democrats, the candidates buying Google search ads are polling in the low single digits, suggesting that the ads are more important to candidates with less name recognition.
j\c You are right cause these tech giants like google ,facebook and even wikopedia has directly tried to stop all and deny almost all truth about the crazyiness of the progressives but censor almost all fair minded conservative thought, man they make the so called russian meddeling in our elections look like childs play ,but hey its ok cause the libs are ok with it. I bet the left will be calling her a racist and all the other names that they lable their desenters with ,....good luck Tulsi
Yeah many of the losers that voted for trump and was fooled and targeted by Russian bot internet memes on FB are now elevating to her. How ironic right?
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
It's definitely unprecedented that a sitting house rep and presidential candidate would not only make these claims but take them head on. This is definitely not going away anytime soon. This isn't just a bunch of fringe youtube creators talking about censorship. This is a sitting US House rep, a presidential candidate and current United States Army Major.
Her credentials reach far beyond anyone that has fought this fight previously.
Yeah many of the losers that voted for trump and was fooled and targeted by Russian bot internet memes on FB are now elevating to her. How ironic right?
What's ironic is that Google and Facebook, who are chalk full of young, energetic, highly paid, tech gurus.... and who are all up in the lefts rear end.... couldn't figure out these bots or how to stop them... but Frank and Lois in Hickory, NC are losers because they were supposed to figure it out.
Know what's even more ironic than that? Google is holding a summit in Italy.. invited a bunch of people including A list celebs like Leo DeCaprio, Katy Perry, Barack Obama and on and on... the agenda is to talk about a number of things including internet privacy, politics, etc.. but the focus this year is on climate change... They have been alerted and are expecting 114 private jets to arrive for the summit on how to save the planet. Others, like David Geffen arrived on one of his yachts.... the $400 million one that holds almost 80,000 gallons of fuel...
Yeah many of the losers that voted for trump and was fooled and targeted by Russian bot internet memes on FB are now elevating to her. How ironic right?
What's ironic is that Google and Facebook, who are chalk full of young, energetic, highly paid, tech gurus.... and who are all up in the lefts rear end.... couldn't figure out these bots or how to stop them... but Frank and Lois in Hickory, NC are losers because they were supposed to figure it out.
Especially when according to them, frank and lois are too dumb to use a computer to begin with
So she wants to slap Google for suspending or not running her ads... Google's business model has done this crap for years and years. I've had ads rejected on google too. They have guidelines for what ads can contain and if your ad throws any flags in their algorithm it takes the hit. She and the boo bird GOPers are not being singled out. Period.
Back when most of you were using AOL, Google came a long with this idea;
Build a search engine that organizes websites, grades their quality, and delivers the highest quality websites in search returns.
This is what google is built on. This is why so many people use it that it became a household word that then became a verb, 'google it'. So then web devs started trying to game the algorithms to get their sites to the top. Google refined, refined, refined, and refined some more until they could filter most of the scams, strobe light flashing crap, and useless websites out of the returns; which improved user experience 1000 fold.
Along the way they developed rules to keep hate groups, scammers, criminals, pedophiles, and other creeps from being able to game their platform for gain and to protect users from them. One of the biggest hurdles is that the shear number of searches and ads they serve can in no way be manually reviewed. So they use a form of AI and algorithms.
I've hated and loved google at different times because of all of this. I've had ads that made me a good bit of money taken down or their price increase from penny clicks to tens of dollars. I've had to learn SEO to get sites ranked just for them to change the algorithm and delist those site forcing me to start all over agains trying to figure out the next SEO tricks. I've had ads fail like Gabbards did and be suspended. I've had an account closed and been booted after one of their changes and NOBODY to talk to about getting it restored.
But love them or hate them, the reason they have 88% of all searches and can sell these ads for such a premium IS BECAUSE THEY'VE DONE THESE THINGS. People trust google for searches and ads because they filter most of the rift raft. But sometimes innocent people get caught up, or people who didn't know they were breaking a rule, or that their material could be flagged/suspended. And it is upsetting.
It has also forced developers and wouldbe business people to build safer, more reliable websites and systems. Google has made the web better, period.
But hey, google built the platform and made it what it is today with these policing standards and methods. ANYBODIES ads or website content can fly right past the algorithms and onto screens as long as it adheres to quality and safety standards. Apparently Gabbard needs a better tech team because these ads should have been approved and or tweaked until they were approved long before they were launched. Same with GOPers, stop spreading hate speech or similar low quality content and Google won't be an impedance.
This will go nowhere in my opinion because there is NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH being infringed upon here and a ruling to the contrary will more or less destroy the relative safety of the internet that we all enjoy today. Thank you Google.
Last edited by OldColdDawg; 08/01/1902:35 PM.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Yeah many of the losers that voted for trump and was fooled and targeted by Russian bot internet memes on FB are now elevating to her. How ironic right?
What's ironic is that Google and Facebook, who are chalk full of young, energetic, highly paid, tech gurus.... and who are all up in the lefts rear end.... couldn't figure out these bots or how to stop them... but Frank and Lois in Hickory, NC are losers because they were supposed to figure it out.
Especially when according to them, frank and lois are too dumb to use a computer to begin with
A computer eww boy better catch up bro, tech is leaving you behind.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
If the repubs ran out pretty much anyone but Trump I may be able to vote for her ... lots i don’t agree with but she’s sensible and every other word out of her mouth isn’t or doesn’t lead back to FREE ...
I think she’s gonna be Joe’s running mate ... well OK .. i thought she would be Joe’s running mate but its clear the DNC and their PR wing of at least 90% of the press don’t want him ...
U guys are gonna end up Hillaring yourselves again ... and man do we ever need it ... even if u hillary yourselves Trump may still have a hard time cause of how much some hate him ..
Yeah many of the losers that voted for trump and was fooled and targeted by Russian bot internet memes on FB are now elevating to her. How ironic right?
What's ironic is that Google and Facebook, who are chalk full of young, energetic, highly paid, tech gurus.... and who are all up in the lefts rear end.... couldn't figure out these bots or how to stop them... but Frank and Lois in Hickory, NC are losers because they were supposed to figure it out.
Tech guru’s figured it out. Their leaders like Zuk where too greedy to stop it. And most Americans had figured it out as well. Except those losers like Lois in Hickory that voted for trump based on internet memes on FB and Google to help the racist trump get elected.
I don’t believe for a minute you guys give two hoots for Gabby. Not saying you DC but some trump supporters don’t want people to believe they support trump is all and rightfully so. I know Trump will still get their votes.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
Except those losers like Lois in Hickory that voted for trump based on internet memes on FB and Google to help the racist trump get elected.
You just can't get your head around the fact that Lois was going to vote for Trump anyway, can you? She saw Hillary for the scheister that she is (with or without Russian help)... bit her lip and voted for Donald Trump and remained loyal to her party... That's what she was going to do anyway.
Quote:
I don’t believe for a minute you guys give two hoots for Gabby.
Not really.. except to the extent that I would like to see her get a fair shot and not get steamrolled by the DCCC and the DNC in favor of their "preferred" candidate as they have a history of doing as an "impartial" entity..... and I'd like to see her get a fair shot in the media... what happens after that, I don't really care.
Quote:
Not saying you DC but some trump supporters don’t want people to believe they support trump is all and rightfully so. I know Trump will still get their votes.
Well, a lot of people on both sides say that both parties suck when what they really mean is .. "That party sucks 90%, the party I usually vote for only sucks 10%"...
I don't think a lot of people named Lois had a clue who to vote for. Both were terrible candidates and neither deserved the title of president. I'm not claiming that some Russian troll ads on Facebook was a deciding factor, but a lot of people were searching for some reason, any reason to be swayed by either side.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
I don't think a lot of people named Lois had a clue who to vote for. Both were terrible candidates and neither deserved the title of president. I'm not claiming that some Russian troll ads on Facebook was a deciding factor, but a lot of people were searching for some reason, any reason to be swayed by either side.
Without a compelling reason not to, most people will vote for the party they typically vote for... and neither Hillary nor Trump had a broad enough appeal to make people want to change.
I think that is why we saw results similar to the Bush/Gore election, where neither candidate was all that strong..
Dems would be smart to put her as the their main candidate. I think she would have the best chance at beating Trump since she is somewhat of a moderate. I might even vote for her because I really like her spunk and the fact she served in the military.
You can't fix stupid but you can destroy ignorance. When you destroy ignorance you remove the justifications for evil. If you want to destroy evil then educate our people. Hate is a tool of the stupid to deal with what they can't understand.
Tulsi pretty much hits every major button for me. I don't believe anyone should be president that had not served in the Military. I am anti war, pro green, anti hysterical nonsense. She just scratches me where I itch.
You said: "Tulsi pretty much hits every major button for me."
I say: "Ewww"
You said: "I don't believe anyone should be president that had not served in the Military."
I say: "I love my brothers and sisters that serve, but Military Service as a prerequisite for office is a horrible idea. Sure it doesn't hurt, but it would disqualify innumerous brilliant minds and good candidates."
You say: "I am anti war, pro green, anti hysterical nonsense."
I say: "ok"
You say: "She just scratches me where I itch."
I say: "Ewww!" again then try to get the taste of 'throw up' out of the back of my throat.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Google has 'political agenda,' wants to make sure Trump loses 2020 election, says ex-employee
A former Google engineer who claims he has been blacklisted by the tech giant for his conservative views said he believes the company will try to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
"When President Trump won in 2016, Google executives went on stage right away and cried -- literal tears streaming down their faces. They vowed that it would never happen again and they want to use all the power and resources they have to control the flow of information to the public and make sure that Trump loses in 2020," Kevin Cernekee said on "Fox & Friends" Monday.
Cernekee said Google will "ramp up the censorship" as a method to ensure Trump loses the election -- including the censoring of political advertisements, and the filtering of search results to promote its political agenda.
"They are very biased. There is bias at every level of the organization...and if you disagree with them even one iota, they will come after you, they'll target you, they'll make you an example"
"Google has a huge amount of information on every voter in the U.S.," Cernekee explained. He claimed the company will use it to "build psychological profiles" in an attempt to change the minds of voters across the country.
The former Google worker said he noticed early on that the tech giant was mistreating its conservative employees, and he raised his concerns with human resources. In response, he received an official warning, which he took to the labor board. Cernekee was eventually fired in 2018.
Google told him he was terminated for misuse of the company’s equipment, including its software system for remote access. However, Cernekee, who describes himself as a whistleblower, maintains he was terminated for his outspoken conservative views.
"They are very biased. There is bias at every level of the organization...there are a lot of activists working for Google...and if you disagree with them even one iota, they will come after you, they'll target you, they'll make you an example," he explained.
Cernekee, who now works at a different Silicon Valley company, called for the intervention of lawmakers and government agencies to investigate the history of labor complaints against Google, claiming that the issue exists in many of the large social media companies -- but that they are better at "keeping it under control."
"I think President Trump needs to know that there are a lot of potential whistleblowers in these companies," Cernekee said. "And they will speak up if they know he has their back."
