Category Archives: Alphabet

Workers accuse Google of ‘tantrum’ after 50 fired over Israel contract protest

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Tech giant fired number of people who protested against $1.2bn Project Nimbus, which supports Israeli military and government

Google has been accused of throwing a “tantrum” after sacking more than 50 workers in response to a protest over the company’s military ties to the Israeli government – firings that have shone a light on a controversial project and long-simmering tensions between staff and management.

The workers were sacked following protests at Google offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California, organized by No Tech for Apartheid – an alliance of Google and Amazon workers who have been protesting against a $1.2bn contract with the Israeli government called Project Nimbus that they claim will make it “easier for the Israeli government to surveil Palestinians and force them off their land”.

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Google blocking links to California news outlets from search results

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Tech giant is protesting proposed law that would require large online platforms to pay ‘journalism usage fee’

Google has temporarily blocked links from local news outlets in California from appearing in search results in response to the advancement of a bill that would require tech companies to pay publications for links that articles share. The change applies only to some people using Google in California, though it is not clear how many.

The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) would require large online platforms to pay a “journalism usage fee” for linking to news sites based in the Golden state. The bill cleared the California assembly in 2023. To become law, it would need to pass in the Senate before being signed by the governor, Gavin Newsom.

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EU investigates Apple, Meta and Google owner Alphabet under new tech law

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Technology groups face hefty fines if they are found guilty of breaching Digital Markets Act

Apple, Google’s parent company and Meta are being investigated by the EU for potential breaches of the bloc’s new laws designed to police anti-competitive behaviour by big technology companies.

The trio face significant fines if they are found guilty of breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of regulation that came into force on 7 March and is aimed at increasing choice for online consumers.

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EU calls on tech firms to outline plans to tackle deepfakes amid election fears

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Move involving companies such as Google, Facebook and X comes after evidence of Russian online interference in polls

The EU is calling on eight major tech companies including Google, Facebook and X to detail how they identify and tackle deepfake material amid concerns about the use of the technology to influence elections.

In a world first, they will be using new laws on artificial intelligence to force companies to root out fake video, imagery and audio.

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Google restricts AI chatbot Gemini from answering questions on 2024 elections

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Change, made out of ‘abundance of caution’, now applies to US and India and will roll out in nations where elections are held this year

Google is restricting its Gemini AI chatbot from answering election-related questions in countries where voting is taking place this year, limiting users from receiving information about candidates, political parties and other elements of politics.

“Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” Google’s India team stated on the company’s site.

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Google stops notifying publishers of ‘right to be forgotten’ removals from search results

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Move comes after Swedish court rules that informing webmasters about delisted content is breach of privacy

Google has quietly stopped telling publishers when it has removed websites from its search results under European “right to be forgotten” rules after a ruling in a Swedish court which the search engine is applying globally.

Previously, when an individual applied to have records about them expunged under EU data protection laws, Google would notify the publisher of the original articles.

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Big tech boom or bust? Experts see signs of strength after wave of layoffs

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Even as more job cuts await, some analysts see the beginnings of a bull market in the coming season of earnings reports

Will 2024 be a boom or a bust for big tech? By one estimate, there have been more than 7,500 layoffs in the sector since the start of the year – a dispersal of pink slips that many hoped would have ceased after the deep job cuts of 2023.

However, as the US’s big tech earnings season gets under way this week, some analysts are predicting strong numbers. This batch of quarterly financial results may show that the industry has cleared out its pandemic-era overhiring and reorganised itself around cloud computing and AI - necessitating cuts in sectors with less rosy prospects. Analysts keen on AI say we are at the start of a tech bull market.

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Google loses antitrust trial to Fortnite maker Epic Games

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Google says it will appeal lawsuit accusing it of moving to quash competitors and charging unfair fees

Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, has prevailed in an antitrust trial over Alphabet’s Google Play app marketplace, Epic’s chief executive said on Monday, hours after the federal jury took up the case.

“Victory over Google! After 4 weeks of detailed court testimony, the California jury found against the Google Play monopoly on all counts. The Court’s work on remedies will start in January,” Tim Sweeney wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Google to pay Canada news publishers $73m a year to keep news in search

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Deal resolves tech giant’s concerns over Online News Act, which makes big companies share advertising revenue with publishers

Canada and Google have reached a deal to keep links to news stories in search results and for the tech giant to pay $73.6m annually, or C$100m, to news publishers in the country.

The deal resolves Alphabet-owned Google’s concerns over Canada’s Online News Act, which seeks to make large internet companies share advertising revenue with news publishers in the country.

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Google accused of spending billions to block rivals as landmark trial continues

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Justice department takes on tech giant in court, seeking to prove it illegally used its power to maintain monopoly on internet search

The court battle between the US justice department and Google has entered its second day, as the United States government seeks to prove that the tech behemoth illegally leveraged its power to maintain a monopoly over internet search engines. The trial is a major test of antitrust law and could have far-reaching implications for the tech industry and for how people engage with the internet.

The question at the heart of the trial is whether Google’s place as the search engine for most Americans is the result of anti-competitive practices that gave internet users no other choice but to use its services.

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US to argue Google abused power to monopolize internet search as antitrust trial begins

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Outcome could reshape how public accesses and interacts with the internet, or embolden Google to pursue tighter grip on the market

The watershed antitrust trial pitting the US government against Google begins on Tuesday in a Washington district court, as the government is set to make its case that the tech giant illegally abused its power to monopolize internet search. It is the biggest test of antitrust law in decades, and the first such case against Google to go to trial.

Big tech companies and regulators are closely watching the trial, which could force a shift in how the industry is allowed to operate. Its outcome could reshape how the public accesses and interacts with the internet, or embolden Google to pursue an even tighter grip on the market.

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EU unveils package of laws to curb power of big tech firms

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‘Revolutionary’ Digital Markets Act aims to allow more competition and let consumers delete preloaded phone apps

The EU has unveiled a set of “revolutionary” laws to curb the power of six big tech companies, including allowing consumers to decide what apps they want on their phone and to delete pre-loaded software such as Google or Apple’s maps apps.

The package of laws will also pave the way for more competition in some of the areas most guarded by the tech firms, including Apple Wallet and Google Pay.

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Canada publishers urge Ottawa to stop Meta from blocking users’ news access

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Dust-up began after law passed requiring social media companies to compensate news publishers for posting their content

A group of Canadian news publishers and broadcasters has called on the country’s competition regulator to stop Meta from blocking access to news as the federal government and technology companies clash over revenue and content sharing.

News Media Canada, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and CBC/Radio‐Canada warned on Tuesday that Meta’s decision to bar Canadians from viewing news on Facebook and Instagram amounted to “anticompetitive conduct” and violates a provision of a federal law.

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‘It’s pillage’: thirsty Uruguayans decry Google’s plan to exploit water supply

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Country suffering its worst drought in 74 years, with government even mixing saltwater into drinking supply

A plan to build a Google data centre that will use millions of litres of water a day has sparked anger in Uruguay, which is suffering its worst drought in 74 years.

Water shortages are so severe in the country that a state of emergency has been declared in Montevideo and the authorities have added salty water to the public drinking water supplies, prompting widespread protests.

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Google earned $10m from ads misdirecting abortion seekers to ‘pregnancy crisis centers’

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Study finds the search giant has profited since Roe was overturned from anti-abortion groups buying misleading search terms

Google has made millions of dollars in the last two years from advertisements misdirecting users who were seeking abortion services to “pregnancy crisis centers” that do not actually provide care, according to a new study.

The tech giant has taken in an estimated $10m in two years from anti-choice organizations that pay to advertise such centers alongside legitimate results on the Google search page, according to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit group that conducts misinformation research. Its study, published on Thursday, estimates that the search results have reached and potentially misled hundreds of thousands of users.

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Brazil receives pushback from tech companies on ‘fake news’ bill

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Brazilian government has accused Alphabet of interference after it placed advertising on its search homepage and YouTube

Brazil’s government is taking a stand against major tech companies over a new internet regulation that is shaping up to be one of the world’s strongest legislations on social media.

Bill 2630, also known as the ‘fake news’ law, puts the onus on the internet companies, search engines and social messaging services to find and report illegal material, instead of leaving it to the courts, charging hefty fines for failures to do so.

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RT videos spreading Ukraine disinformation on YouTube despite ban – report

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The platform banned the Russia-controlled publication last year for its Ukraine falsehoods, but its content is still posted on various channels

Hundreds of videos produced by the Russia-controlled publication RT have found their way on to YouTube in the past year, despite the platform’s ban of such media last year.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, banned all Russian state-funded media from its platform globally in March 2022, citing a policy barring content that “denies, minimizes or trivializes well-documented violent events” as Russia sought to guide the narrative on its war in Ukraine.

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Google parent firm Alphabet to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide

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It is latest US tech company to announce sweeping job losses as global outlook weakens

Google’s parent company is to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide as it becomes the latest US tech major to cut staff.

Alphabet’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said the redundancies followed a “rigorous review” of the business. The cuts come days after Microsoft said it would cut 10,00 jobs, citing a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.

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Hong Kong pressures Google to remove protest anthem from searches

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Authorities want Glory to Hong Kong axed from top results and replaced with China’s national anthem

Google has refused to change its search results to display China’s national anthem, rather than a protest song, when users search for Hong Kong’s national anthem, the city’s security chief has said, expressing “great regret” at the decision.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Google will pay $392m to 40 states in largest ever US privacy settlement

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Case is a historic win for consumers after an investigation found the tech company tracked users’ location even after they opted out

Google has agreed to a $391.5m settlement with 40 states to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations, state attorneys general announced on Monday.

The states’ investigation was sparked by a 2018 Associated Press story, which found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called “location history”.

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