Google Deletes Political History. No, Google Determines Political History
September 30, 2025
I read “Google Just Erased 7 Yers of Our Political History.” I want to point out that “our” refers to Ireland and the European Union. I don’t know if the US data about political advertising existed. Those data may lurk within the recesses of Google. They may be accessible via Google Dorks or some open source intelligence investigator’s machinations.
The author of the write up interprets Google’s making some data unavailable as a bad thing. I have a different point of view, but let’s see what has over-boiled one Irish person’s potatoes. The write up says:
Google appears to have deleted its political ad archive for the EU; so the last 7 years of ads, of political spending, of messaging, of targeting – on YouTube, on Search and for display ads – for countless elections across 27 countries – is all gone.
What was the utility of this separate collection of allegedly accurate data? The write up answers this question:
The political ad archive – now deleted? – allowed people like me (and many others) to understand what happened in elections, like this longer piece I was able to write during the European & Local elections last year on the use of YouTube by a far right party, Sinn Féin’s big push on search result ads, and the growth of attacks ads in Ireland. Now you need the specific name of an advertiser, and when I looked for, for example, “Sinn Fein”, it (a) only gave me the option of searching for their website, and (b) showed zero results. This is despite Sinn Fein spending upwards of €10k a day during some of the elections last year.
The write up concludes:
But the ad archives were introduced 7 years ago for a reason – in no small part because of the chaos of the Brexit and Trump 2016 votes, and our own advocacy here in Ireland about interference in the 2018 8th amendment referendum. They were introduced to allow for scrutiny of campaigns, and also to provide a historical record so we could go back and look at what had been promised, and what had been spent, and to see if this lined up with what happened later. This erasure of our political past feels dangerous, for scrutiny, for accountability, for shared memory, for enforcement of our rules – for our democracy.
I think I understand. However, I have a different angle on this alleged deletion:
- Google may just clean up, remove a pointer, or move a service. To a user, the information has disappeared. My experience with the Google is that the data remain within the walled garden. A user has to find a way into that garden. Therefore, try those OSINT investigator tricks or hire Bellingcat to help you out
- Google is a large and extremely well-managed outfit. However, it is within the realm of possibility that a team leader allowed an intern or contract worker to be a “decider.” When news of the possible and usually inadvertent or inexplicable deletion floats upward to leadership, the data may reappear. Google may not post a notice to this effect unless it has a significant impact on advertising revenue. There is a small possibility that a big political advertiser complained about the data about political advertising. In that case, there is a teenie tiny possibility that someone just killed the pages with the data to make a sale. I am not saying this happened. I just want to suggest there are some processes that may occur and not be known to the estimable leadership of the outstanding firm.
- Criticizing Google is a good way to never be considered truly Googley. Proof of Googliness may be needed if one or one’s children wish to be employed, hired, or otherwise engaged in a substantive manner with the Google. Grousing about the Google is proof one is not Googley. End of story.
My personal take on this is that Google does not delete history. Google wants to control history. How many Googlers do you know who can recount the anecdote about Yahoo taking the estimable Google to court over the advertising technology Yahoo alleged Google emulated? Yeah, ask that question of Google leadership and see how much of an answer your receive. Believe me this is a good bit of color for Google’s business methods. Too bad it has disappeared to some degree.
If something is not in Google, that something doesn’t exist. That’s the purpose of history.
Stephen E Arnold, September 30, 2025
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