Trump Campaign Blasts Google, Accuses Tech Giant of Quashing Voter Turnout for 2020
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign lambasted Google on Tuesday for supposedly suppressing voter turnout ahead of the 2020 election.
“There is no other description for this than the muzzling of political speech,” the Trump campaign wrote in a joint statement with the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“Google is clamping down on voter engagement and suppressing voter turnout.”
The campaign was referring to Google’s decision, announced on Monday, to limit political campaigns’ ability to narrowly target advertisements.
Full text: pic.twitter.com/gPU18Cc9Bn
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) November 26, 2019
The announcement marks a change in Google’s political advertisement policy.
The tech company will allow political advertisers to target voters by age, gender and ZIP code — but it can no longer home in on voter affiliation or use information based on public voter records, Google said in a statement.
The Trump campaign’s release noted that it would not be the only one affected by Google’s new policy.
Democratic and Republican campaigns, as well as political groups, would likely feel the effect, according to the president’s team.
“By severely restricting political advertising, Google is stifling the ability of citizens to participate in our democracy,” the statement read.
Past media reports show environmental groups are worried decisions like Google’s could hurt their ability to push back against Trump’s climate policies.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and progressive activists railed against Twitter in October after the company announced plans to stop hosting political advertising by Nov. 22. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted about the change and said it applies to both candidate ads and issue ads.
Twitter’s new ad policy will allow fossil fuel companies to buy ads defending themselves and spreading misleading info—but won’t allow organizations fighting the climate crisis to buy ads holding those companies accountable. We need accountability. https://t.co/B9RtX7hC5g
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 5, 2019
Warren thrashed the decision after a report suggested climate activists were unable to spread policy messages on the platform. She linked to a report from Heated, a newsletter devoted to discussing climate issues. The report suggested Twitter is allowing ExxonMobil to run ads defending itself from a volley of climate lawsuits.
Google has not responded to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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