James Comer U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 1st district | Official U.S. House Headshot
James Comer U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 1st district | Official U.S. House Headshot
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has initiated an investigation following reports that Meta’s AI assistant and Google Search’s Autocomplete function generated inaccurate information related to the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump. The Committee has expressed concerns about large technology companies potentially influencing public opinion through speech suppression and censorship.
In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Chairman Comer requested documents and information to understand how Google designs its Search product and Autocomplete features. “Americans rely upon prominent internet search engines such as Google to gather news and information critical to their understanding of national politics and events—and never more so than during a Presidential election season,” wrote Chairman Comer. He highlighted user reports indicating that autocompleted search prompts related to the assassination attempt on President Trump produced results for failed assassination attempts on former Presidents but omitted the recent attempt on Trump’s life.
Chairman Comer also addressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a separate letter, seeking documents and information regarding the design, review, management, and updating of Meta's AI chatbot. Referring to an incident where Meta’s bot denied the assassination attempt on Trump, Comer wrote, “The Committee requests that Meta produce all internal policies or any other documents related to how the Meta AI chatbot is designed, reviewed, managed, and updated.”
In August 2022, Zuckerberg confirmed Facebook had censored a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop following warnings from the FBI about potential misinformation. The Committee advanced H.R. 140, the Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their authority to influence private sector entities to censor lawful speech.
Read the letters addressed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for further details.
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