Philipp Schindler, Chief Business Officer at Google said that the Mountain View-based tech giant started fighting fake news using all tools at its disposal. While speaking at Code Media conference in Dana Point, California on Tuesday, the company’s top executive said that Google is taking the issue of fake news “very, very seriously,” adding that the Alphabet-owned firm is still thinking about new methods of combating this problem. Schindler also reiterated how Google already took first steps towards completely preventing the dissemination of inaccurate and false information by banning websites which publish fake news from using its advertising platforms. The company is hoping that cutting such publications from an important source of revenue will have immediate effects. Furthermore, the Internet giant recently started labeling Google News listings that have been verified as accurate.
While the Alphabet-owned company is gradually committing more resources to combating fake news, Schindler noted how Google has to tread carefully seeing how that term — recently popularized by President Trump — doesn’t carry the same meaning for everyone. Due to that state of affairs, Google is trying to do everything it can to differentiate between outright false stories and bad journalism, the company’s Chief Business Officer explained. Schindler also added how Google is approaching the issue in a careful manner as it doesn’t want to be accused of censorship. Finally, the company’s executive said he has no advice on the matter for Facebook, another Internet giant that has recently been heavily criticized for not doing enough to combat the dissemination of fake news through its services. While Schindler wasn’t willing to comment on Facebook’s efforts to combat fake news, the two companies have identical goals regarding this issue, as evidenced by their recent activities in Canada.
Schindler’s comments are mostly in line with those of Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai who recently admitted that fake news could have influenced the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and promised to do more to combat that problem in the future. While light on details, Pichai and Schindler’s statements suggest that the Mountain View-based tech giant will soon introduce more features designed to combat false news stories.