Election watchdog reviews claims Logan candidate redirected Google traffic
A candidate running for a seat in Logan denies he redirected Google traffic after the election watchdog was called to review three claims.
THE election watchdog is investigating a complaint about a Logan City Council candidate.
The Independent Council Election Observer said three Logan candidates had asked it to review online content.
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The ICEO said it would investigate claims by Logan Division 8 candidates Peter Brackstone, Elijah Buol and Kylie Slater that another candidate for the seat, Jacob Heremaia, had used a Google tool to redirect traffic to his site.
My Heremaia denied he, or anyone on his campaign, redirected traffic from the three candidates to his profile and slammed the claims as “fake news”.
The ICEO said the three requests, together with their relevant attachments, were forwarded to Mr Heremaia on Thursday.
“He responded on Friday and the ICEO is currently considering that response,” the ICEO spokesman said.
Division 8 candidate Kylie Slater said she was angry when voters told her they typed her name into an online Google search engine only to find an advertisement for Mr Heremaia pop up on screen.
“It was pointed out to me that a Google search of my name resulted in an advertisement referring people to another candidate’s website with a recommendation to support that other candidate,” Ms Slater said.
“My investigations revealed that all other candidates’ names placed into a Google search engine revealed the same ad.
“I took a screenshot of each and sent them to the council election observer.
“I believe this online tool is mischievous and unethical and Google calls it ‘Sneaky Redirects’.”
Ms Slater also took her complaint to the Electoral Commission of Queensland who told her to contact the police.
“In such circumstances, the matter is deemed to be civil rather than criminal in nature. It is suggested that you seek independent legal advice in relation to this matter,” the police said.
Mr Heremaia said the three other candidates had not provided any independent verification as to the authenticity of the screenshots.
“Independent verification is crucial as it is very easy to produce doctored search results,” Mr Heremaia said.
“The URL presented in the complainants’ screenshots is displayed as www.heremaia.com/Vote_1/Jacob_Heremaia. This web page does not exist.
“If this was indeed cloaking, the alleged ads would not have been approved by Google’s Ad Review process.”
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