Google continues to spread Russian propaganda - Bloomberg

One of Google's services still continues to serve misleading propaganda to Russian audience using Android.

This is reported by Bloomberg.

According to the publication, mobile phone users in Russia receive pro-war propaganda from sources that Google has blocked elsewhere. In particular, through the Discover service, which is displayed as a content feed in the Chrome browser on Android devices.

In particular, in September this year, Google received an average of more than 200 thousand daily clicks to the propaganda media outlet "Tsargrad" of Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, who was sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for his role in fomenting violence in Ukraine.  

Discover also regularly features other pro-Kremlin media outlets, such as "Komsomolskaya Pravda".

Google's fight against Russian propaganda

Google said it has been able to effectively thwart Russian information operations (IO) aimed at supporting the war domestically. In 2022, Google suspended 1,950 cases of Russian IO activity on its platforms.

Selective blocking of Google by the Russian Federation

Google News is blocked in Russia, but other services of parent Alphabet Inc, including YouTube and Google Search, continue to work. The Android operating system is also used on more than 80% of mobile phones in Russia, along with Discover, which regularly covers Putin's media outlets.

The publication explains that while Discover is positioned as a search rather than news product, for many users the vast majority of its recommendations that appear when you open Chrome on a mobile device are articles, giving it a news feed look. Bloomberg's sources noted that because Discover generates much less revenue than Google search, it also has a smaller budget to prevent abuse.

However, the abuse of Discover in Russia was noted as an internal problem.

Google's assistance to Ukraine

Recall that at the end of 2022, Google decided to provide $2 million for digital education for Ukrainians and 50 thousand Workspace licenses (a set of cloud services) for the government.

Google Cloud service in March 2022, following most other companies, introduced restrictions for the Russian Federation. It banned the registration of new accounts in the aggressor's territory.

Google business service allows you to create a free profile for a company or institution and add photos, offers, publications, and other useful information to it.