• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechFortune 500

Donald Trump Suggests Google Is Trying to Ruin His Candidacy

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 29, 2016, 11:04 AM ET

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump believes Google is trying to hurt his candidacy.

Speaking at a rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday night, Trump argued that a “Google poll” showed his campaign leading by two points over Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. He gloated that the lead comes despite the online giant hiding bad news related to Clinton.

“A new post-debate poll, the Google poll, has us leading Hillary Clinton by two points nationwide,” he said during the rally, “and that’s despite the fact that Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton. How about that.”

Trump’s comments were earlier reported on by The Washington Post.

Trump’s Google (GOOGL) claim refers to a theory floated back in June that the search giant was intentionally bringing Internet users to results that criticized Trump. More specifically, a site called SourceFed published a video that went viral showing how Google’s auto-complete function, which helps users get to search results more quickly, reacted when “cri” was input after a candidate’s name.

In the case of Clinton, when users typed “hillary clinton cri,” it wouldn’t automatically show an option to click “Hillary Clinton criminal” in the auto-complete. However, when users searched for Trump-related items, the auto-correct would offer some negative results, including “donald trump crimes,” reports said at the time.

Other reports soon surfaced, saying that Google was manipulating users through its search engine to play a role in swaying the electorate.

Google denied those accusations, saying that it was in no way modifying its auto-complete or search results to help Clinton and hurt Trump. Google event went so far as to issue a blog post on the topic, explaining how the auto-complete function works.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter

“The autocomplete algorithm is designed to avoid completing a search for a person’s name with terms that are offensive or disparaging,” wrote Tamar Yehoshua, Google Search’s vice president of product management, in the post. “We made this change a while ago following feedback that Autocomplete too often predicted offensive, hurtful or inappropriate queries about people. This filter operates according to the same rules no matter who the person is.”

Trump, though, is still peddling the idea that Google is working against him to benefit Clinton. And while he didn’t mention the “criminal” complaint by name, it’s one that doesn’t necessarily hold up.

For more about Donald Trump, watch:

In Fortune‘s own evaluation of Google’s auto-correct on Thursday, the exact opposite of what reportedly happened in June is happening now. When Fortune input “hillary clinton cri” into Google’s search box, it returned auto-correct options that refer to “hillary clinton criminal memes” and “hillary clinton criminal investigation google.” When Fortune typed in “donald trump cri,” however, there wasn’t no mention of Donald Trump and criminality.

As The Washington Post notes, Trump’s mention of “the Google poll” is also lost in translation. The Post believes Trump was actually referring to a Google Consumer Survey conducted after Monday night’s debate by the Independent Journal Review. The poll, in other words, was conducted using Google Consumer Surveys but was not Google’s own poll.

Google declined Fortune‘s request for comment on Trump’s statement. Neither campaign immediately responded to a request for comment.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

AI
U.S. judge blocks Pentagon’s ‘Orwellian notion’ to label Anthropic a supply chain risk and ban Clause from the government
By March 26, 2026
1 hour ago
AIData centers
Southeast Asia could become a booming data center market if its data centers can beat the heat
By Angelica AngMarch 26, 2026
5 hours ago
New Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro pictured
Arts & EntertainmentDisney
Disney CEO’s no good, very bad week: Josh D’Amaro is dealing with 3 major headaches
By Tristan BoveMarch 26, 2026
6 hours ago
startup team smiles in front of camera
CryptoCryptocurrency
Exclusive: Megapot raises $5 million to create a crypto-powered global lottery
By Carlos GarciaMarch 26, 2026
9 hours ago
Water storage construction on the Meta data center site in Holly Ridge, Richland Parish, Louisiana.
AIEye on AI
Inside Meta’s chaotic AI boomtown in rural Louisiana
By Sharon GoldmanMarch 26, 2026
9 hours ago
Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg
SuccessCareers
30-year-old CEO of $11 billion Harvey earned the backing of OpenAI and Sam Altman. He says you have to ‘re-earn’ your role every 6 months
By Preston ForeMarch 26, 2026
11 hours ago

Most Popular

C-Suite
'I didn’t want anybody shooting me': Five Guys CEO gave away $1.5 million bonus to employees over botched BOGO burger birthday celebration
By Fortune EditorsMarch 25, 2026
1 day ago
Success
Palantir’s billionaire CEO says only two kinds of people will succeed in the AI era: trade workers — ‘or you’re neurodivergent’
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
2 days ago
Environment
Vail Resorts CEO says it’s time to think beyond the $1,000 ski pass that helped build the empire
By Fortune EditorsMarch 26, 2026
19 hours ago
Commentary
The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it
By Fortune EditorsMarch 23, 2026
3 days ago
Success
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon says remote work breeds ‘rope-a-dope politics’ and stunts young workers’ growth
By Fortune EditorsMarch 25, 2026
1 day ago
Magazine
The youngest-ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company is fighting Trump's cuts to keep Medicaid strong
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.