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Google autocomplete omits Trump assassination attempt

In late July 2024, users including Elon Musk and Sen. Ted Cruz showed that Google's autocomplete did not suggest searches about the July 13 attempt on Donald Trump's life. Google said no manual action was taken and that its existing filters against predictions tied to political violence were working as designed but out of date. Full searches still returned results.

Jul 29, 2024
Whose side it served: Neither party

The omission came from an automated filter that also hid Biden and Harris assassination queries; the record does not show it served either side by design.

What the record shows

VERIFY confirmed on July 29, 2024 that phrases such as 'Trump assassination attempt' did not appear as suggestions but full searches returned results. Google told VERIFY: 'There was no manual action taken on these predictions.' It said its protections against autocomplete predictions associated with political violence 'were working as intended prior to this horrific event,' and that it was working to keep its systems more up to date. VERIFY found Google also did not suggest 'Biden assassination attempt' or 'Harris assassination attempt.' By July 30, some related phrasings began appearing as suggestions.

In their words

“There was no manual action taken on these predictions.”— Google spokesperson · source
The other side

The omission was real, but VERIFY's testing found the filter applied to assassination queries for other politicians too, consistent with Google's explanation of an automated political-violence filter rather than a Trump-specific suppression.

Sources

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