Google Maps’ recent scandal — imposing old satellite images of the Pacific Palisades over the area on its maps, hiding the arson-caused devastation just before the Los Angeles mayoral election — has gotten so big that the tech giant actually responded. But Google is refusing to acknowledge anything but a supposed “technical issue.”
How coincidental that this technical issue occurred in the run-up to the June 2 election, and that it happened to make the Palisades specifically look as if it had been rebuilt, when, in fact, Democrat Mayor Karen Bass has slow-rolled the rebuild as much as possible. And how odd that this alleged error continued for more than a day and attracted significant national attention before Google Maps finally took action.
Notably, Republican mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt lost his home in the early 2025 fire, and he has been hammering Bass on her failure to address the disaster as it happened and then to rebuild afterwards. The Google Maps “technical issue” made it look as if his house still existed.
dear @Google Wtf is this https://t.co/nqCP3UyvyC
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) May 18, 2026
Machina Labs’ Edward Mehr, who pointed out that the area where he used to live before the fire was showing up as it was more than a year ago. “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 posted.
The officially verified X account News from Google replied to Mehr, “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 fire. We’re fixing it ASAP.”
The Google account subsequently added later on May 18, “This technical issue has been fixed. Post-fire imagery is rolling out again now across Google Maps and Earth.”
The problem is that we know Google has been interfering in American elections, and even international elections, for years. In early 2024, a Media Research Center study revealed 41 different times that Google meddled with elections, including everything from algorithmic manipulation to search result censorship. Whether Google Maps actually had a technical issue or not, the problem is the company is now the boy who cried wolf, and no one believes it when it claims error instead of malice.
For our VIPs: ‘Who Raised You?’ Spencer Pratt Furious as Wokie Mocks His Arson-Forced Family Move
Yesterday, May 18, when I looked at the satellite imagery from Google Maps for the Pacific Palisades, I noticed a phenomenon you can spot below, which is that either the deliberate mistake or the accidental error caused patchy imaging. In other words, some areas had old images overlaid, looking prosperous and built-up, while other areas showed the actual burned-out landscape.
By “temporarily closed” .@googlemaps means “burned to a crisp” pic.twitter.com/ieeZlIHbkO
— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32) May 18, 2026
You might also notice above that multiple public buildings and Santa Ynez Canyon Park show up as “temporarily closed” when, in fact, they burned down or suffered heavy fire damage during the arson-caused fire last year, and have therefore been “closed” ever since. To me, it seems completely disingenuous for Google to continue labeling them “temporarily closed.“
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