As you know, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' mishandling of the Pacific Palisades fire, which destroyed nearly 7,000 homes, is a major issue in the upcoming election. Republican Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the fire, is running for mayor himself and making the fires a big part of his campaign. Some thought it odd, then, that Google Earth, which had shown the devastation of the fires a month earlier, suddenly "rebuilt" the neighborhood right before the election.
Google just quietly changed their map of LA by using old pre-fire satellite imagery
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 18, 2026
LA's election is in 2 weeks pic.twitter.com/QApKAd2aHc
Google took note and claimed it was a routine update to satellite imagery that suddenly made Google Earth use satellite photos from over a year ago.
This is a technical issue triggered by a recent, routine update to satellite imagery in Google Maps and Earth, which accidentally restored old imagery from before the fires. We’re fixing it ASAP.
— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) May 18, 2026
— Katie Scarlett (@Katiescarlet2) May 18, 2026
Why does this ALWAYS happen in one single direction every single time? Billion dollar tech corporations ALWAYS make innocent changes that ALWAYS benefit Democrats. Oops! Nobody believes you.
— K20A2 🇺🇸 (@VTOL_Penguin) May 18, 2026
Translation - we are evil and want to help the socialist mayor get re-elected. But those meddling kids caught us again.
— Stu (@socal_stu) May 18, 2026
— Mann Made Cinema (@Hotshot_Movie) May 18, 2026
A "routine update" that switches to old data?
— Steve Abra (@SteveAbra77) May 18, 2026
Well that sounds like an obvious and poorly constructed lie.
This is a technical issue triggered by a recent, routine manipulation of elections.
— AynRandsGhost (rational/person) (@ghost_ayn_rand) May 18, 2026
Guess what Google? Based on your long history of convenient oversights and outright lies, no one believes you. All your "technical issues" are only biased in one direction. Google has zero credibility left.
— Nad Navlis (@NNavlis23085) May 18, 2026
Completely believable and legit.
— Jeff (@Chunkhead) May 18, 2026
😆🙄
Theres no way this is a technical issue.
— Stoic boi (@StoicBo1) May 18, 2026
Bullshit. Google is trying to hide the damage brought by incompetent Democrats to attempt to influence the election in any way possible.
— BrrtBrrtBe (@ByerB4) May 18, 2026
Nobody believes that. You guys are evil
— Mace (@Macedizz) May 18, 2026
Interesting timing. How many similar incidents have happened like this? Just to show that like, it’s a totally normal thing and not tampering at all. Just, so routine and totally just an issue, cause issues happen regularly.
— Dr. Hawzzy PhD. (@TheHawzzy) May 18, 2026
“Accidentally?”
— Let Your Soul Glow (@LetYourSolGlo) May 18, 2026
Bro.
I appreciate the response. Google has become so inept in searches due to AI and politically always seems to make mistakes in one direction.
— Silas (@SilasSilvanis) May 18, 2026
The company can't afford to isolate over half the country.
Remember when Google first rolled out its AI effort, and when people asked it to generate images of the Founding Fathers, they were all black and Asian? Stuff like that isn't just a "routine" technical issue.
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