Trump provided no backing for his accusation in a post on his Truth Social platform, in which he added that the search engine displays only positive articles about his Democratic rival vice-president Kamala Harris.

“This is an illegal activity, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections,” he said in the post.

“If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the election.”

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tech giant does not disclose the inner workings of the software that powers its ubiquitous search engine.

However, factors known to influence search results for news stories include the timeliness and popularity of topics.

Trump is at the centre of numerous criminal and civil cases in which he faces accusations including sexual abuse, paying hush money to a porn star, interfering with the 2020 election and trying to thwart the peaceful transition of power after President Joe Biden defeated him.