Report: Exec says Google News to screen “Russian propaganda”

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (PRIME) -- The U.S.’ Alphabet, Google’s owner, will ferret out Russian propaganda from Google News after facing criticism that Kremlin-owned media sites had been given plum placement on the search giant’s news and advertising platforms, news portal Motherboard reported late Monday, quoting Alphabet’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

“We’re well aware of this one, and we’re working on detecting this kind of scenario you’re describing and deranking those kinds of sites,” Schmidt said, after being asked why the world’s largest search company continued to classify the Russian sites as news.

Schmidt, in an interview at the Halifax International Security Forum over the weekend, name-checked two state-owned enterprises.

“It’s basically RT and Sputnik,” Schmidt added. “We’re well aware and we’re trying to engineer the systems to prevent it.”

Both outlets are wholly owned by the Russian government. RT is the overseas television station and online outlet, while Sputnik, the online-only media network, is available in over 30 languages.

But while Schmidt was willing to take aim at those outlets, and call them out for the “spread of misinformation - or worse,” he provided little in the way of concrete plans to lessen the state broadcasters’ reach on his digital properties.

“We don’t want to ban the sites. That’s not how we operate."

The two Russian outlets have been at the center of questions over Moscow’s efforts to influence politics in the West, and they have shown an adept understanding of how to expand their reach by using the Internet, most notably through Google News and Alphabet-owned YouTube.

In January, a publicly released American intelligence assessment concluded that RT and Sputnik “contributed to the influence campaign by serving as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.” Earlier this month, RT registered with the U.S. Department of Justice as a “foreign agent.”

Schmidt said the Russian strategy is fairly transparent, and usually involves “amplification around a message.” That information can be “repetitive, exploitative, false, (or) likely to have been weaponized,” he said.

“My own view is that these patterns can be detected, and that they can be taken down or deprioritized.”

On Saturday, however, Schmidt ruled out kicking the sites off his platform altogether.

“We don’t want to ban the sites. That’s not how we operate,” Schmidt said. “I am strongly not in favor of censorship. I am very strongly in favor of ranking. It’s what we do.

“It’s a very legitimate question as to how we rank, A or B, right? And we do the best we can in millions and millions of rankings every day.”

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