Category Archives: Google

Australian eSafety commissioner puts tech companies on notice over reports terror-related content still being shared

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Julie Inman Grant has asked companies including Google, Meta and Telegram to explain how they are taking action against violent and extremist material

Australia’s online safety regulator has issued notices to Telegram, Google, Meta, Reddit and X asking how they are taking action against terror material on their platforms.

It is five years since an Australian murdered 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch in New Zealand, and broadcast the massacre on Facebook live. Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said she still receives reports that video and other perpetrator-produced material from terror attacks are being shared on mainstream platforms, although there were now slightly less on mainstream platforms such as X and Facebook.

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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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India confronts Google over Gemini AI tool’s ‘fascist Modi’ responses

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Junior minister accuses tech firm of violating country’s IT laws with ‘downright malicious’ answers

A response from Google’s AI platform suggesting that some experts believe the policies of the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, polices to be “fascist” has provoked a confrontation between the company and the government.

The journalist Arnab Ray last week put the question as to whether Modi was a fascist to Google’s generative AI platform, Gemini. He received the answer that Modi was “accused of implementing policies some experts have characterized as fascist”.

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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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Tech giants could be forced to share secret news deals under Australia’s media bargaining code

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New legislation will help ensure sustainability of public interest journalism, Labor says

Tech giants could be forced to hand over sensitive details on how they distribute news on their platforms to Australia’s competition watchdog as part of the federal government’s commitment to levelling the playing field for public interest journalism in the digital age.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will undertake periodic reporting into how platforms subject to the media bargaining code are distributing news content on sites and whether significant bargaining power imbalances between the tech giants and media organisations exist.

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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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Australian academics apologise for false AI-generated allegations against big four consultancy firms

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Case studies created by Google Bard AI as part of submission to parliamentary inquiry proven to be factually incorrect

A group of academics has offered an unreserved apology to the big four consultancy firms after admitting they used artificial intelligence to make false allegations of serious wrongdoing in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry.

The accusations have been met with scorn by the firms, concerned that inaccurate information has been given parliamentary privilege to unfairly tarnish the reputation of its staff.

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Tech leaders agree on AI regulation but divided on how in Washington forum

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Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman and others gathered for ‘one of the most important conversations of the year’

A delegation of top tech leaders including Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman convened in Washington on Wednesday for a closed-door meeting with US senators to discuss the rise of artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated.

The discussion, billed as an “AI safety forum”, is one of several meetings between Silicon Valley, researchers, labor leaders and government and is taking on fresh urgency with the US elections looming and the rapid pace of AI advancement already affecting peoples’ lives and work.

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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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Boots baby formula ads on Google broke rules, says UK watchdog

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Retailer apologises for error, with such advertising banned in case it discourages breastfeeding

Online adverts for Boots for four infant formula products broke advertising rules designed to protect breastfeeding, the advertising watchdog has found.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) made the ruling in response to a complaint that the health and beauty retailer’s infant formula products had been advertised on Google.

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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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Republicans attack FTC chair and big tech critic Lina Khan at House hearing

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Khan accused of giving herself ‘unchecked power’ by taking aggressive steps to regulate Twitter, Meta and Google

Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, faced a grueling four hours of questioning during a House judiciary committee oversight hearing on Thursday.

Republicans criticized Khan – an outspoken critic of big tech – for “mismanagement” and for “politicizing” legal action against large companies such as Twitter and Google as head of the powerful antitrust agency.

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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 ordered to hand over anonymous emailer’s information to former Victorian Labor candidate

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Federal court orders account details be given to Nurul Khan so he can sue the person for defamation

Google has been ordered to hand over the account information and IP address of a person who a Victorian Labor candidate alleges defamed them in an email.

Nurul Khan was endorsed to run for the Labor party in last year’s state election, but an email littered with allegations against him was sent to ministers and news organisations on 9 November.

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PwC Australia allegedly provided confidential tax law information to Google

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Google, the first of the firm’s customers directly linked to the tax scandal, was not told the information was confidential and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the company

PwC Australia allegedly provided Google confidential information about the start date of a new tax law leaked from Australian government tax briefings, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

This is the first time a company has been directly linked to the national scandal involving the “big four” accounting firm that was revealed in January.

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