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Google refuses to embed fact-checking into core search algorithms: Report

This development comes on the heels of a growing debate over the role of tech platforms in curbing misinformation and policing content.

Google, in its response to the probe, noted the CMA's comment that search was vital for growth.

Google has no plans to comply with the soon-to-be formalised set of rules.(File photo)

Google is resisting European Union (EU) proposals that would legally mandate the tech giant to show fact-checks alongside search results and YouTube videos.

The Alphabet-owned company has also declined to integrate fact-checking directly into its ranking systems and algorithms, a move that may be required under the EU’s new Code of Practice on Disinformation, according to a report by Axios.

This development comes on the heels of a growing debate over the role of tech platforms in curbing misinformation and policing content. Last week, Meta announced that it would be pulling the plug on its fact-checking programme and transitioning to an X-like Community Notes system.

What did Google say?

In a letter addressed to Renate Nikolay, the deputy director general under the content and technology arm at the European Commission, Google’s global affairs president Kent Walker reportedly said that the big tech company will not commit to the fact-checking requirements under the EU’s new Code of Practice on Disinformation.

“It simply isn’t appropriate or effective for our services,” Walker was quoted as saying.

Defending Google’s current content moderation approach, Walker said it had successfully navigated last year’s “unprecedented cycle of global elections”. He also pointed out that YouTube’s new feature that allows users to add contextual notes to videos “has significant potential.”

The EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation was first drafted in 2018 and went into effect in 2022. It comprises several voluntary commitments for tech firms, private companies, and fact-checking organisations on fighting fake news.

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Over the past year, EU representatives have been privately meeting with tech companies as the bloc is looking to convert the voluntary fact-checking measures into a legal and official code of conduct under the DSA, its content moderation law rolled out in 2022.

But Google has no plans to comply with the soon-to-be formalised set of rules.

Google will “pull out of all fact-checking commitments in the Code before it becomes a DSA Code of Conduct,” Walker reportedly said in his letter.

Google will continue to invest in improvements to its current content moderation practices which focuses on providing people with more information about their search results through features like Synth ID watermarking and AI disclosures on YouTube, Walker added, as per Axios.