Google Rejects Calls for More Censorship

Google has rejected the European Union’s demand that it add fact checks to search results or use them in removing content, according to a letter obtained by Axios.

The matter pertains to the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation.

Google’s President of Global Affairs Kent Walker wrote to the European Commission’s Deputy Director-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology Renate Nikolay stating that the fact-checking requirement under the EU policy “simply isn’t appropriate or effective for our services.”

Walker noted Google’s current approach to content moderation is appropriate. He further stated that Google would “pull out of all fact-checking commitments in the Code before it becomes a DSA Code of Conduct.”

Instead of complying with the EU, Walker said Google would continue to work within its current content moderation practices such as watermarking and AI disclosures.

The letter comes as Meta has moved away from fact-checking.

He announced in a video that fact-checkers have become “too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they created, especially in the U.S.”

Zuckerberg stated that Meta will simplify its content policies. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas. And it’s gone too far,” he said.

“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” Zuckerberg added in the video, noting that the “only way we can push back against this trend is with the support of the U.S. government.”

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