Google suspends campaign against Fake News PL – 05/02/2023 – Politics

Google suspended its advertising campaign with texts critical of PL 2630, in compliance with the determination of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

In a decision this Tuesday (2), Moraes determined the removal of ads and links from the company’s blog against the so-called PL of Fake News.

Google has stopped its online campaign on Google itself and other platforms, as well as advertising in other media outlets.

In the decision, the minister determines that: “All ads, texts and information published, propagated and promoted from the official Google blog with attacks on PL 2630, including those referred to as ‘PL da Censura’, ‘As PL 2630 can make your internet worse”, “PL 2630 can impact the internet as you know it”.

Google’s legal department is still evaluating whether the decision also includes removal of the blog post itself, in addition to the ads that lead to it.

Francisco Brito Cruz, executive director of InternetLab, sees possible extrapolation in the order of content removal.

“The minister’s order is a demonstration of strength that goes beyond when it removes arguments against the PL from the air, but it reinforces the need for safeguards for freedom of expression and transparency in the platforms’ systems”, he says.

The company released a note this Tuesday afternoon (2), in which it does not directly address government actions. Google defends what it sees as the company’s right to air its views on the bill.

“We support discussions on measures to combat the phenomenon of misinformation. All Brazilians have the right to be part of this conversation, and as such, we are committed to communicating our concerns about Bill 2630 publicly and transparently. We highlight these concerns in traditional and digital media marketing campaigns, including on our platforms.”

Google claims that it has already used links on the Homepage, just below the search box, to encourage vaccination during the pandemic and informed voting in elections.

Asked about the fact that it holds 97% of the search market and uses its Homepage to link to a post against PL 2630, it did not comment.

Links on the Homepage are not classified as advertising by the company. There is an understanding that circulating your opinion is equivalent to the right of media outlets to expose their views on legislation that affects them in editorials, for example.

“We believe that the bill and its impacts should be discussed more widely with society as a whole. As well as several groups and associations that have expressed themselves in favor of postponing the vote, we understand that more time is needed for the text to be improved and We remain at the disposal of parliamentarians and public authorities to clarify any doubts about how our products work.”

As shown to SheetGoogle launched an offensive against PL 2630, the bill that regulates the internet, suggest emails, screenshots and reports obtained by the report.

The platform refutes the findings of the NetLab study at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, cited in the survey opened by Moraes.

“It is important to note that we never manually alter the results lists to favor the position of a specific web page. We do not extend the reach of pages with content contrary to PL 2630 in the search, to the detriment of others with favorable content. Our ranking systems apply consistently to all pages, including those administered by Google.”