--START--Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard sues Google for suspending ad account - The Verge

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has sued Google for temporarily suspending her advertising account after the Democratic primary debates last month, claiming the company is trying to suppress her bid for presidency. The lawsuit accuses Google of violating the First Amendment, among other offenses, and Gabbard is seeking $50 million plus assurances that Google will refrain from “censoring or restricting” the account.

Gabbard’s lawsuit claims that she opened a Google Ads account to capitalize on voters’ curiosity about her as a lesser-known Democratic presidential candidate. But on June 27th, amid a spike of search interest after the first primary debate, she says Google suspended her account for a period of hours — which meant users who searched for her name wouldn’t get her campaign site placed at the top of their results. Google reportedly cited “problems with billing information or violations of our advertising policies,” then “suspicious behavior in the payment activity in your account,” before reinstating the account.

In a statement, Google spokesperson Riva Sciuto said that the account had been automatically flagged. “We have automated systems that flag unusual activity on all advertiser accounts — including large spending changes — in order to prevent fraud and protect our customers,” says Sciuto. “In this case, our system triggered a suspension and the account was reinstated shortly thereafter. We are proud to offer ad products that help campaigns connect directly with voters, and we do so without bias toward any party or political ideology.”

Google temporarily suspended the account for “problems with billing information”

Gabbard, however, claims the suspension was based on her criticism of Google and other major tech companies. “Google supports viewpoints, political causes, and candidates that favor its policy positions over those that do not,” the complaint says. She alleges that in addition to the temporary account suspension, “Google’s email platform Gmail sends communications from Tulsi into people’s Spam folders at a disproportionately high rate” compared to other Democratic presidential candidates — although it’s not clear how Gabbard discerned this. “Google has manipulated its search advertising, and likely its email filtering, to disfavor Gabbard,” reads the complaint. “What is next, if not enjoined by a Court?”

A spokesperson for Gabbard’s campaign, Cullen Tiernan, took issue with Google’s explanation. “Google may blame this on automated systems, but the reality is that there is no transparency whatsoever, which makes it difficult to determine the truth,” Tiernan told The Verge. “The fact is that the account was down for hours as searches for Tulsi were surging, and Google changed its reasoning from one excuse to another during the duration of the suspension.”

The New York Times writes that Gabbard’s campaign realized the account was suspended around 9:30PM on July 27th, and it says Google reactivated the account at 3:30AM on the 28th. The second Democratic primary debate ran from around 9PM to 11PM on the 27th, and Gabbard was indeed one of the most popular candidates on search.

It’s worth noting that Gabbard isn’t the only Democratic candidate to criticize or threaten Google and other tech giants. Most notably, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has proposed a massive breakup of large tech companies, a policy Gabbard has supported. (Facebook notably suspended some of Warren’s anti-Facebook ads for violating its policies.) Gabbard also isn’t claiming that Google actively manipulated organic search results — something President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence. She did, however, cite other accusations that Google is “censoring content that favors conservative viewpoints,” although she claimed the reality is “more nuanced and self-serving.”

Update 3:00PM ET: Added response from Gabbard’s campaign.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/25/8930373/google-tulsi-gabbard-democratic-candidate-lawsuit-ad-search-ban-political-bias-debates