Republican nominee Donald Trump called for his supporters to stop using Alphabet Inc.’s Google, calling the search engine “illegitimate” as he doubled down on his criticisms of large technology companies.

“Something’s wrong with Google,” Trump said in an interview with controversial video game celebrity Adin Ross on Monday. “Everybody should maybe just go off Google, not use it.”

Trump was referring to claims from billionaire Elon Musk and others that Google is interfering with efforts to find information about the former president. Musk alleged that Google had a “search ban” on Trump, sharing an image that appeared to show the search engine’s auto-correct suggesting “donald duck” as one of the options when prompted with “president donald.” Musk has endorsed the Republican nominee and is donating to a pro-Trump super political action committee.

Google declined to comment about Trump’s remarks.

Donald Trump Jr., the nominee’s son, has also made those claims, sharing an image on X that purportedly showed a Google search box with auto-complete options for a query on assassination attempts that does not mention Trump. Trump Jr. called it “intentional election interference from Google.”

Trump’s appearance with Ross comes as he is increasingly trying to reach voters by less conventional means, participating in YouTube videos or podcasts with friendly hosts. Ross, who originally became famous playing games like "NBA 2K" and "Grand Theft Auto," has drawn controversy for his political positions. Ross has interviewed self-described misogynist Andrew Tate and an anonymous person who espoused neo-Nazi views on his livestream.

Ross livestreams on Kick.com, operated by the owner of Australian crypto casino Stake. Ross has faced multiple bans from Amazon Inc.’s Twitch — a more mainstream livestreaming site — including in 2022 for using “hateful slurs or symbols,” the service said at the time.

Monday’s stream with Trump ended with 564,000 viewers on Kick.com.

Trump has increasingly attacked Google in recent days. Last week, he said in an interview with Fox Business that he thinks “Google is going to be close to shut down because I don’t think Congress is gonna take it.” There are no serious efforts in Congress currently underway to stop Google’s operations.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has also taken a strident approach to Big Tech, questioning whether Meta Platforms Inc. should own both the Facebook and Instagram platforms and Google’s ownership of YouTube. The senator has also expressed concern about Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence project.

The Monday interview with Ross comes as Trump has been seeking to counter a wave of momentum behind Democrat Kamala Harris since the vice president jumped into the race last month. His team has yet to settle on effective messages to attack Harris, who if elected will be the first Black woman and Asian American U.S. president.

Some early efforts from Republicans drew consternation even from Trump allies as sexist and racist in their tone.

Trump last week questioned Harris’ Black identity, claiming she “happened to turn Black” to help her political career, while attending a National Association of Black Journalists event.

(With assistance from Julia Love.)

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