{"id":3094,"date":"2019-07-28T06:05:43","date_gmt":"2019-07-28T10:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2019-07-28T06:05:43","modified_gmt":"2019-07-28T10:05:43","slug":"tulsi-gabbard-sues-google-for-suspending-her-ads-after-first-dem-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=3094","title":{"rendered":"Tulsi Gabbard sues Google for suspending her ads after first Dem debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"article-featured-image\"><figcaption>Rep. Tulsi Gabbard <span class=\"credit\">Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"article-engagement col-sm-2\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div class=\"author\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-image img-responsive img-circle\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.lifesitenews.com\/images\/made\/images\/remote\/https_www.lifesitenews.com\/images\/local\/FreiburgerHeadshot2018_100_100_75gray_s_c1.jpg\" alt=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/> <span class=\"author-name\"> Calvin Freiburger <\/span> <a class=\"author-follow-link has-modal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/ajax\/author-profile\/calvin-freiburger\"> Follow Calvin <\/a><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<nav class=\"article-sharing-nav\"><\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-content col-sm-10\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<h1 class=\"article-title\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Tulsi Gabbard sues Google for suspending her ads after first Dem debate<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p class=\"article-tags hide-print\">\n<div class=\"article-text-wrapper\">\n<p>July 26, 2019 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/\">LifeSiteNews<\/a>) \u2013 While most of the voices accusing tech giants of political discrimination are conservative, some left-of-center figures have been caught up in the controversy as well, including 2020 Democrat presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard.<\/p>\n<p>Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii, announced Thursday that she\u2019s suing Google for suspending her campaign\u2019s Google Ads account for several hours after the first Democrat primary debate.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-block ad-content ad-pos-top content-loaded\" data-entry-id=\"203887\">\n<div id=\"D_Detail_content_top\" data-google-query-id=\"CMfsiJOk1-MCFRuzTwodg8ED1Q\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/2596116\/D_Detail_content_top_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/2596116\/D_Detail_content_top_0\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/2596116\/D_Detail_content_top_0\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-google-container-id=\"1\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>The New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/25\/technology\/tulsi-gabbard-sues-google.html\">reported<\/a>\u00a0that following the debate, Gabbard was \u201cbriefly\u201d the most-searched presidential candidate on Google, and the campaign wanted to seize that momentum with some ad buys, but found their account suspended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor hours, Tulsi\u2019s campaign advertising account remained offline while Americans everywhere were searching for information about her,\u201d Gabbard\u2019s campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tulsi2020.com\/tulsi-vs-google\">charged<\/a>. \u201cDuring this time, Google obfuscated and dissembled with a series of inconsistent and incoherent reasons for its actions. In the end, Google never explained to us why Tulsi\u2019s account was suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The campaign gave the <em>Times<\/em> emails indicating that Google initially suspended them for \u201cproblems with billing information or violations of our advertising policies,\u201d then sent a notice several hours later reinstating the account and claiming the temporary suspension was meant to verify billing information and compliance with Google\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n<p>Google spokesman Jose Castaneda told the <em>Times<\/em> that the company\u2019s automated systems, which are designed to catch \u201cunusual\u201d activity such as large spending changes, \u201ctriggered a suspension,\u201d but \u201cthe account was reinstated shortly thereafter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoogle\u2019s 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,\u201d Gabbard declared in a statement. \u201cThis is a threat to free speech, fair elections and to our democracy, and I intend to fight back on behalf of all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Google engaging in further election interference and a minimum of $50 million in damages. It also alleges that her campaign emails found their way into Gmail spam folders at \u201ca disproportionately high rate\u201d compared with\u00a0those from other Democrat primary campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>Gabbard has drawn some interest for ostensibly being more moderate than the rest of the Democrat field. As recently as 2004,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/left-attacks-democrat-presidential-candidate-for-her-past-marriage-defense\">she opposed<\/a> same-sex \u201cmarriage,\u201d but is now a doctrinaire liberal on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/2020-democrat-hopefuls-united-against-life-marriage-religious-freedom\">abortion, LGBT issues<\/a>, and even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/amid-leftward-lurch-democrat-2020-candidates-open-to-legalizing-prostitution\">decriminalizing prostitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Since the 2016 election of President Donald Trump, Google has been under fire for allegedly intensifying efforts to slant their platforms and services in favor of Trump\u2019s opponents and other left-wing causes in a variety of ways, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/google-denies-blacklisting-under-oath-despite-leaked-docs-showing-otherwise\">blacklists<\/a>, biased <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/google-whistle-blower-suspended-after-suggesting-big-tech-manipulating-elections\">algorithms<\/a>, and more. Concerns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/google-likely-thoroughly-infiltrated-by-chinese-govt-expert-warns\">have also been raised<\/a> that figures within Google and other tech companies have been \u201csubverted\u201d by foreign governments.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/fcc-chief-ajit-pai-declares-tech-censorship-greatest-threat-to-a-free-internet\">told Congress<\/a> last month that he considers \u201cunregulated Silicon Valley tech giants\u201d today\u2019s \u201cgreatest threat to a free and open internet.\u201d Earlier this month, Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1149453628639535104\">announced<\/a> that he was \u201cdirecting my administration to explore all regulatory and legislative solutions to tech censorship.\u201d Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/tech\/josh-hawley-takes-aim-big-tech\">proposed legislation<\/a> that would require social media platforms to certify their political neutrality with the FCC if they want to keep their congressionally granted immunity from legal liability for what they allow users to post.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Wikimedia Commons Calvin Freiburger Follow Calvin Tulsi Gabbard sues Google for suspending her ads after first Dem debate July 26, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) \u2013 While most of the voices accusing tech giants of political discrimination are conservative, some &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=3094\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1829,1830,836,285,1828],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3095,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions\/3095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}