Google Refuses to Integrate Fact-Checks into Content, Here’s Why

Google has apparently written to the European Union, indicating that it won’t add fact-checks into its search results or YouTube videos, even as the new law in the EU requires so. The company said it would not apply fact-checking in ranking or removal of content either. According to Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, the EU’s new Disinformation Code of Practice is forcing the company to incorporate fact-checking, “simply isn’t appropriate or effective for our services.”

In a letter to Renate Nikolay, deputy director-general at the European Commission, Walker reiterated that Google has not softened its stance, even as the voluntary code is transitioning into a law. The new Code of the EU compels technology-based enterprises, such as Google, to provide search and YouTube content services that also show fact-checking results. This means their ranking systems and algorithms are impacted as well. But Walker declared Google’s current model is doing an excellent job, especially in “unprecedented cycles of global elections.”

Another feature that Walker brought up is on YouTube: adding contextual notes to videos. The feature, according to him, “has big potential” and is in a similar line as X’s efforts and those by Meta. Under the Code of Practice on Disinformation in 2022, the EU put forward some voluntary commitments that included incorporating fact-checking organizations but predates the DSA that focuses more on content moderation.

In his letter, Walker restated that Google had already informed the Commission of its decision to reject the fact-checking component, stating that the company would “pull out of all fact-checking commitments in the Code before it becomes a DSA Code of Conduct.” He assured that Google would continue to enhance its content moderation strategies, including features like Synth ID watermarking and AI disclosures on YouTube.

This has coincided with the wider global debate over the role of tech platforms in fact-checking. Last week, Meta announced that it would be ending its fact-checking efforts and reducing content policing, a move that has come on the back of Elon Musk having reduced the intensity of content moderation on X since taking over in 2022.