ROOKE: Amid Race Everyone’s Watching, Big Tech ‘Malfunction’ Sparks Criticism For Election Interference

Amid the final weeks before Los Angeles voters head to the polls for the mayoral primary, Google Maps quietly reverted satellite imagery of Pacific Palisades and other neighborhoods devastated by the 2025 fires to pre-fire photos.

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Lush greenery and intact homes replaced the charred neighborhoods that had accurately reflected the destruction for over a year. Critics accuse Google of altering its map photos to remove visual evidence of the fires that decimated the area in order to “manipulate” the mayoral race.

Machina Labs CEO Edward Mehr posted on X side-by-side Google Maps screenshots of his neighborhood near Sunset Boulevard from before and after the fires. The problem is that the “before” photo was the most recent photo available on the app.

“Apparently Google decided ‘showing current reality’ might not be ideal for reelection optics of LA mayor? So now Google Maps is serving pre fire images for parts of LA us and our neighbors live,” Mehr said.

Political commentator Mike Cernovich posted the story on X, accusing Google of trying to “manipulate the LA mayoral election,” adding that this will “help elect communists and destroy the country.” (RELATED: Google’s New Fact-Check Feature Almost Exclusively Targets Conservative Sites)

“Google is attempting to manipulate the LA mayoral election,” Cernovich continued. “Why should they be given massive tax breaks and data centers?”

Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott demanded answers from Sundar Pichai, CEO of both Google and parent company Alphabet, calling the potential election manipulation “ridiculous.”

Google’s official X news account responded to Scott, claiming the app posted the pre-fire imagery by accident.

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“This issue has been fixed. Post-fire imagery is rolling out again now across Google Maps and Earth. For context: This technical issue was triggered by a recent, routine update to satellite imagery, which accidentally restored old imagery from before the fires,” Google claimed. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

Some didn’t take Google’s supposed explanation at face value, like Hunter Weiss, video creator, director, and founder of WE!SS, a creative studio based in New York City.

“You’re telling me both neighborhoods that burned to the ground in Los Angeles had their maps magically reverted to pre-burn satellite images while both were labeled 2026 at the bottom? not believable. Even the new ‘update’ forces you to zoom all the way in as close as possible,” Weiss said.

The Palisades and Eaton fires burned over 16,000 structures, killing 31 people and destroying about 13,000 homes and other residential properties. The fires have been a focal point of the Los Angeles Mayoral election, with viral mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt condemning Mayor Karen Bass (who is seeking reelection) for her leadership during the blaze.

This isn’t Google’s first brush with accusations of tilting the political scales. For years, the company has faced criticism for suppressing conservative voices and candidates in search results. (RELATED: Google Suspends Fact Check Project, Crediting TheDCNF Investigation With Decision)

During past election cycles, studies and congressional scrutiny highlighted how Google buried Republican campaign websites while elevating Democratic ones. One analysis from MRC that multiple GOP candidates’ sites were hidden from the first page of results, while their opponents dominated the top spots.

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