Google takes down MAGA ad critical of Biden — prompting multitudes of reposts across social media

Google recently killed an advertisement supportive of former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. When outed Friday for shutting down the video multiple times, the tech giant reportedly wrote it off as an "error."

If intentional, then the removals appear to have been a strategic error. After all, Google's perceived censorship has drawn far more attention to the ad than it would otherwise have received were it permitted to run without delay. Additionally, the removals have renewed concerns among conservatives about the impact that big tech continues to have in the democratic process.

The verboten video

The video, paid for by the Make America Great Again Inc. pro-Trump super PAC, dramatizes a fictional engagement between a Biden call center volunteer and a disaffected former Democratic voter.

The video opens with a shot of the exterior of the call center, adorned with signs that read, "Trans for Biden Harris," "LatinX for Biden Harris," and "Undocumented for Biden Harris."

Inside, a bespectacled woman calls a voter who sounds less than enthused to receive a call from the Biden campaign.

"Yeah, yeah. I voted for Biden last time," says the voter.

"That's fantastic," says the rainbow-buttoned Biden volunteer, sitting in front of a cardboard cutout of Biden draped in the Mexican flag.

"Is it?" responds the voter. "Everything costs more. Food, gas, rent."

"Okay, but Biden is helping pay rent for newcomers to America from around the world," says the fictional volunteer, reading off a script that cautions against saying "immigrants."

"You mean illegal immigrants? I'm struggling to pay my bills, but Biden's paying rent for illegals? They get handouts and I'm paying for it," says the voter.

When asked whether President Joe Biden can still count on his vote, the voter on the other end of the line indicates he is voting for Trump.

Censored

Andrew Arenge, director of operations for the Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, noted on X that the MAGA super PAC initially spent over $15,000 targeting the ad at specific communities in rural Georgia last week.

While the ad was scheduled to run from Wednesday until Friday last week, NewsBusters indicated that Google removed the ad for a supposed "policy violation."

There was significant backlash following the perceived censorship, giving the ad new life on various social media platforms — all without MAGA needing to shell out additional funds.

Some critics suggested that the ad removal amounted to election interference. Others have highlighted it as continued evidence of big tech's war against conservatives.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wrote, "Love the ad. Hate Google. They are evil election deniers and try to interfere with free and honest elections."

Filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza noted in a viral post, "Google has taken down this Trump ad on the pretext of violating its guidelines. The real reason of course is because it's pretty effective. Let's teach Google a lesson by sharing this widely!"

Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, said, "This is unacceptable."

"Why did Google remove the ad from Trump's Super PAC in the first place? This is a continuation of a campaign against conservatives."

Arenge suggested that the PAC doubled down and relaunched the advertisement on Google platforms Saturday. Later that day, the flagged ads were reportedly reactivated. According to NewsBusters, Google said it flagged the ads "in error."

The Google Ads Transparency Center page for the PAC's ads indicates the ad has since been successfully deployed, still targeting Americans south of Atlanta. The PAC has so far spent over $1.19 million nationally on Google ads.

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