US Presidential hopeful, Tulsi Gabbard sues Google for $50 million

Indian-origin firebrand Democrat leader and next year's US Presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has sued Google for $50 million. In her lawsuit filed in Federal Court of Los Angeles, Gabbard alleged that Google violated her right to free speech on Thursday when the tech giant briefly suspended her ad account post-Democratic presidential debate. The Hawaii leader has alleged that her ad account was suspended for nearly six hours shortly after the US lawmaker finished her first debate between the Democratic candidates last month.

Tulsi Gabbard revealed her action through her official Twitter handle citing, "In the hours following the 1st debate, while millions of Americans searched for info about Tulsi, Google suspended her search ad account w/o explanation. It is vital to our democracy that big tech companies can’t affect the outcome of elections." She went on to add that Google controls 88 per cent of internet search in the US — giving it control over our access to information. Google’s arbitrary suspension of the account of a presidential candidate should be of concern to all Americans. Google’s discrimination against our campaign reveals the danger of their dominance & how the dominance of big tech over public discourse threatens core American values.

See Tulsi Gabbard's Tweet below:  

TULSI2020: In the hours following the 1st debate, while millions of Americans searched for info about Tulsi, Google suspended her search ad account w/o explanation. It is vital to our democracy that big tech companies can’t affect the outcome of elections https://t.co/n7Y7y2dQZ9

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) July 25, 2019

"They threaten our democracy & #Tulsi will fight back on behalf of all Americans," Tulsi added. Gabbard's lawsuit is demanding at least $50 million against the damages and an injunction that would prevent Google from repeating such act against any other candidate.

Meanwhile, the tech giant Google has denied her allegations citing there wasn't any nefarious reasoning behind the suspension, and a Google spokesperson told The Associated Press that it has automated systems to flag any unusual activity. That happened in Gabbard’s case, and her advertising account was reinstated shortly after.

“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,” another spokesperson told The Hill. “In this case, our system triggered a suspension and the account was reinstated shortly thereafter.”

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