Despite the DSA: Google does not want to introduce its own fact checks

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Google does not want to introduce fact checks for the results of its search engine and YouTube videos. The company has now made this clear in a letter to the EU Commission. The EU wants to make a corresponding, previously voluntary code of conduct for tech platforms mandatory.

The letter refers to the European Union's Code of Practice Disinformation. This contains various voluntary measures that the operators of tech platforms can take to combat misinformation.

Code to become mandatory with DSA

The code was introduced in 2022 and is set to become part of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The EU is therefore already trying to achieve the best possible implementation in cooperation with the tech platforms concerned. They have also been cooperative in recent years. Obviously, Google, Meta and co. were afraid of being held responsible for misinformation, for example in the European elections.

Google itself still does not carry out its own fact checks, but does include other players in its search results, according to the support pages. If there is also a fact check from the relevant operator for the search engine entry displayed on a website, Google will include it. However, this is apparently quite rare. There are also similar measures for the video platform YouTube, which also belongs to Google.

"Simply not appropriate or effective"

The search engine giant does not want to become more involved here in future, as Kent Walker, Global Affairs President at Google, has now made clear in a letter to the EU Commission. This letter is available to the news portal Axios. According to the letter, the Code of Practice Disinformation "is simply not appropriate or effective for our services". Google will not comply with it.

According to Walker, the code would stipulate that, in addition to integrating other fact checks in search results and YouTube videos, Google would also carry out its own fact checks and incorporate them into ranking systems and algorithms.

Google refers to existing measures

He referred to the current approach and spoke of successful content moderation during the numerous political election events that took place worldwide last year. On YouTube, some users could already make contextual comments on videos, which according to Walker "has significant potential". The Google representative also made it clear that he had previously informed the Commission of Google's position on the issue. Google will withdraw from all fact-checking obligations in the Code of Practice Disinformation before it becomes a DSA rulebook. The DSA gives the EU far-reaching sanction options if the companies concerned do not comply with it.

Walker emphasized that Google will continue to invest in improving its current content moderation. Here, for example, users are to be better informed through functions such as Synth ID watermarks and AI checks.

Google is another big tech company to distance itself from the EU standards. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also recently announced that content moderation on Facebook and Instagram would be largely discontinued.

(nen)