Google has notified the EU that it will not comply with the upcoming fact-checking law, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Axios. The company says it will not add fact-checking to search results or YouTube videos and will not use fact-checking data to rank or remove content.
It is important to note that Google has never participated in fact-checking as part of its content moderation policy. However, the company did invest in a European fact-checking database ahead of the recent European Parliament elections.
The upcoming fact-checking requirement was originally introduced by the European Commission’s new Code of Practice on Disinformation. It began as a voluntary set of “self-regulatory standards to combat disinformation” but will soon become mandatory.
In a letter to the European Commission, Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said that integrating fact-checking “is simply not appropriate or effective for our services.” The company also boasted of its current approach to content moderation, noting that it did an excellent job during last year’s “unprecedented global election cycle.”
Google also points to a new feature added to YouTube last year that allows certain users to add contextual notes to videos, saying it “has significant potential.” This program is similar to X’s Community Notes and likely to what Meta is preparing.
Walker also said that Google will continue to invest in modern content moderation technologies, such as Synth ID watermarks and disclosure of artificial intelligence on YouTube. We have no idea what the EU will do in response to Google’s actions once digital fact-checking practices become law.
This comes just after Meta announced that it was ending its fact-checking program in the US, so who knows if Mark Zuckerberg will comply with EU laws. Company X recently laid off its professional fact-checkers. It seems that big tech has big problems with facts.
