Taking the fight against inherent liberal bias of tech companies like Google, Facebook and others, the United States Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard through her campaign committee Tulsi Now Inc has sued tech giant Google for $50 million and accused the California based company for suspending her advertising account in the hours after last month’s debate and alleged it was trying to ‘silence her’.
In the lawsuit filed on Thursday, the campaign committee has alleged that Google violated the Hawaii congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard’s right to free speech. The lawsuit also adds that Google did not provide “a straight answer” for suspending Tulsi Gabbard’s ads account.
“Google’s discriminatory actions against my campaign are reflective of how dangerous their complete dominance over internet search is, and how the increasing dominance of big tech companies over our public discourse threatens our core American values,” Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement. She also pointed how this suspension had essentially curbed her free speech.“This is a threat to free speech, fair elections and to our democracy, and I intend to fight back on behalf of all Americans.”
Google, however, shoved any responsibility from the sequence of events, and passed the buck to “automated systems”. Google spokesperson Riva Sciuto said, “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,” she further added claiming that Google does not have any bias against any ideology. “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.”
However, for Tulsi Gabbard this is not the first instance when she has had to face liberal bias in the United States, earlier too she had warned that “big tech companies who take away our civil liberties and freedoms in the name of national security and corporate greed.”
Tulsi Gabbard over the past few years has emerged as strong contender to the current American President, Donald Trump , however, for Tulsi Gabbard her campaign has been met with stiff resistance from American liberal lobbies and evidently now by tech companies. Having served in the military, Tulsi Gabbard needs no certification, whatsoever, but the progressive brigade has managed to find something ‘disputable’ in her recognition, forcing them to roll up sleeves and level her of belonging to the ‘far right’.
Tulsi Gabbard is a Democrat and a Hindu and might win presidency since she could become the only President on active military service after President Harry Truman. And this can only be possible after she navigates what promises to be the most crowded Democratic primary scrum in history and then beat President Trump in November 2020. After Tulsi Gabbard had announced that she would be running for the Democratic Presidential Election, media seemed to have started diving down deep to bring everything that exists in material or non-material to bully Tulsi and avert what can be historic in the entire US’s history i.e. a woman president in the oval office that too belonging to a minority community. As a democrat, Tulsi Gabbard has strongly pitched for calling back American troops from countries like Afghanistan and stopping interventionist wars that the United States administrations are known for. As a soldier, she holds these values deeply and has a huge support base among the military and veteran community. She is the only democrat to centre her campaign on this issue, and does not have many takers in her party itself. She is also a practising Hindu and has been at the receiving end of a lot of hate for being pro-Israel and pro-India in her views. Therefore, despite being one of the most appealing and sensible candidates, she has been shadow-banned even by her own party.
While Tulsi Gabbard continues to face skewed attempts trying to undermine her campaign, this lawsuit also raises questions on the conduct of tech companies and their Iron Grip over a large part of internet communication channels. Earlier Facebook was also caught involved in a huge data scandal, and was fined $ 5 billion for practices such as the inadvertent exposure of up to 87 million users’ information to the political analysis firm Cambridge Analytica. Google too too was fined by European Union regulators for 1.49 billion euros ($1.7 billion) for abusing its dominant role in online advertising.