'Illegal activity:' Trump threatens Google over 'bad stories' about him
Former President Donald Trump threatened to prosecute Google because a conservative think tank didn't like the results of two search queries made on a single day.
Trump complained of "ILLEGAL ACTIVITY" on Truth Social Friday afternoon the source of which appears to be a Fox News report complaining the search engine buried its content.
"It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris," Trump wrote. "This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections."
Trump's use of the passive tense allowed the former president to omit who had made the determination, but his post arrived two days after Fox's report on the conservative think tank Media Research Center's findings.
According to Fox, "MRC Free Speech America researchers analyzed the Sept. 6 search results of two separate searches: "Donald Trump presidential race 2024" and "Kamala Harris presidential race 2024."
The think tank then professed itself outraged that the top results came from "left-wing" media outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
"Google's search engine pushes left-wing media articles favoring Kamala Harris and slamming Donald Trump," founder Brent Bozell reportedly told Fox News Digital. "Don't trust Google searches."
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A Google spokesperson dismissed the study in a statement to Fox News.
"Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of Search for relevant and common search queries," the spokesperson reportedly said.
"This report looked at a single rare search term on a single day several weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates’ websites ranked in the top results on Google."
The slim data set did not stop Trump from asserting Friday that, if reelected, he would take Google to court for not promoting content more complimentary to his campaign.
Wrote Trump, "I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the Election, and become President of the United States!"
Polls published by BBC News — a news outlet granted a 0 bias score from media analysis company Ad Fontes — showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by 3 points.