Trump voters accuse Google of censorship as company acknowledges discrepancy in search results

Google acknowledged Tuesday an issue that American users had pointed out as searches for “Where can I vote for Harris” would produce an interactive map tool for locating polling places, but similar searches for “Where can I vote for Trump” would not.

“The ‘where to vote’ panel is triggered for certain specific searches because Harris is also the name of a county in Texas,” Google explained in a statement.

The company assured that a fix was on the way, adding, “Note that very few people actually search for voting locations in this manner.”

Millions of Americans began casting their ballots Tuesday in a tight race for the United States presidency, with Kamala Harris aiming to become the first female U.S. president and Republican nominee Donald Trump seeking to reclaim the White House after losing it to Joe Biden in 2020.

Google is not alone in Trump vs Harris controversies

Accusations of political bias or errors that lead to such incidents is nothing new for technology companies. Just a few months ago in September, Amazon was forced to provide an explanation on why its Alexa voice assistant provided responses favoring Democratic candidate Harris.

Amazon assured users of its AI tools neutrality as it called attributed the incidents to an error and said that it was fixed.

Social media users had shared videos showing Alexa’s varied replies to the prompts, “Why should I vote for Donald Trump?” and “Why should I vote for Kamala Harris?” When asked about Trump, Alexa would respond, “I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or candidate.”

However, when asked about Harris, Alexa occasionally listed reasons to support her in the presidential election, describing her as a “strong candidate with a proven track record of accomplishment.”