A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit in which Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard accused Google of temporarily suspending her presidential campaign ads due to political bias — noting that the online search giant is not a government entity bound by the First Amendment.

District Judge Stephen Wilson said Gabbard failed to show that Google's decisions are "in any way equivalent to a government regulation of an election."


"Google does not hold primaries, it does not select candidates, and it does not prevent anyone from running for office or voting in elections," Wilson wrote in his decision dated Tuesday. "To the extent Google 'regulates' anything, it regulates its own private speech and platform."