Google Will Block Some Search Suggestions to Fight ‘Election Misinformation’

Tech giant Google has promised to block certain autocomplete search suggestions ahead of the November election in an effort to fight “misinformation.” One search suggestion given as an example of election “misinformation” is “You can vote yourself into socialism” given as a search suggestion when “You can vote” is typed in.

Bloomberg reports that tech giant Google has announced plans to prevent misinformation spreading ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November by blocking certain autocomplete search suggestions. The autocomplete program regularly recommends full queries to users once they begin typing words, but Google now says it will remove predictions that could be seen as claims for or against candidates or political parties.

Google also plans to pull claims from the autocomplete program about participation in the election including statements about voting methods, requirements, the status of voting locations, and election security.

If a user types for example “you can vote” into Google’s search engine, autocomplete may suggest a query that includes misleading information according to the company. Bloomberg claims that typing the phrase into Google recently yielded the suggestion “You can vote yourself into socialism,” as the top query. According to Google, this search autocomplete is considered election misinformation.