About: Google
‘International alignment’ required on future AI rules, Google chief says
Google chief Sundar Pichai has called for 'international alignment' and 'an agreement on core values' in the future regulation of Artificial Intelligence. But positions of the EU and the US on the issue diverge, following the recent leak of European Commission papers detailing a crackdown on facial recognition technologies.
Tweets of the Week: Google Ads, Green Deal Protests, Tusks New Job
Google brings political advertisers to heel, Wemove.EU calls for European Green Deal, and Donald Tusk greets new job with zeal.
Vestager takes aim at ‘biopower’ of tech giants
Global tech giants have been sowing the seeds of an economy predicated on 'biopower', amid the EU's attempts to rein in their dominance, the bloc's Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
EU mulls disinformation regulation but admits alert system has ‘never been triggered’
The case for the EU regulation of online disinformation "will be evaluated" in the coming months ahead of a decision in early 2020, a Commission official revealed on Tuesday (29 October). At the same time, the EU's executive conceded that its disinformation alert system has never been triggered.
Digital Brief: Copyright Commotion
Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. “Google’s decision is not just regrettable. It is disrespectful of the spirit of the European directive and the...
Copyright directive ‘not in danger’ EU says, following Google backlash
The European Commission has assured those involved that the EU's controversial copyright directive is "not in danger," following Google's announcement that it will avoid renumerating content creators by implementing technical changes to the way it displays news online.
Google is like a ‘digital dictatorship’, says EU copyright rapporteur
In an interview with EURACTIV'S media partner EuroEFE, German MEP Axel Voss, rapporteur for the controversial European "copyright" directive, defends the need to combat monopolies on the Internet, including that of the US giant Google.
Google wants to bypass France’s neighbouring rights
Google, the American digital giant, does not want to pay its due when the EU copyright directive comes into force in France. The online platform prefers to modify Google News rather than pay online news publishers. EURACTIV France reports.
Google wins landmark ‘right to be forgotten’ case in blow for privacy advocates
Google has fended off a landmark legal challenge from the French data protection authority after the EU's top court ruled that the search engine giant does not have to apply 'right to be forgotten' rules globally.
Google agrees on $1 billion tax settlement with France
US internet giant Google has agreed a settlement totalling $1 billion to end a tax dispute in France under an agreement announced in court on Thursday (12 September).
Digital Brief: Big decisions
Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. “There are some big decisions to make.” US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, speaking about Huawei,...
Google siphoning personal data to advertisers, new evidence suggests
Google is using a "surreptitious mechanism" to leak personal data to advertisers, according to new evidence presented to the Irish Data Protection Commission as part of an ongoing investigation.
Tech giants under pressure in the US
About twenty US states are worried about the monopolistic tendencies of tech giants, and are close to launching a joint antitrust investigation next month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday (19 August). EURACTIV's partner La Tribune reports.
Big Tech faces broad U.S. Justice Department antitrust probe
The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday (23 July) it was opening a broad investigation of major digital technology firms into whether they engage in anticompetitive practices, the strongest sign the Trump administration is stepping up its scrutiny of Big Tech.
Trump takes aim at Vestager: ‘She hates the US’
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (26 June) suggested the European Union was out of line in "suing" US technology companies like Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google, saying legal action against those firms should be the purview of the United States.
Facebook to work with ‘trustworthy’ media after Russian fake news offensive
Facebook said it will enable “trustworthy” news publishers to generate additional revenue on its social media site, following EU accusations of Russian meddling in last month's European election campaign.
Digital Brief: The power of online platforms
Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
Google faces privacy complaints in European countries
Google’s privacy woes are set to increase after campaigners on Tuesday (4 June) filed complaints to data protection regulators in France, Germany and seven other EU countries over the way it deals with data in online advertising.
Vestager’s grand plan for regulating the digital economy
The EU should be "ready to act" should social values such as "privacy, freedom and fairness" be under threat from expanding digital monopolies, the bloc's Competition Chief Margrethe Vestager said on Monday (3 April).
Digital Brief: Far-right falsities
It’s election time. With the Brits and the Dutch heading to the polls today, the big news of the week is the story that Facebook has removed around 80 pages spreading fake news or using tactics aimed at unfairly influencing the polls.
User data on the Internet: Manipulation as a business model
European election campaigns are well underway and online votes are also being sought. In such situations, the temptation to misuse data is great, as the Cambridge Analytica scandal in the US elections demonstrated. In the EU, parties have also long relied on advanced data analysis, but is this still legal? EURACTIV Germany talked to a communication expert.
Vestager calls for more access to data for smaller platforms
Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager made a suggestion at the re:publica conference in Berlin: "Access to data has to be redesigned so that newcomers can compete with big tech giants". In a discussion with EURACTIV, she also drew parallels with a recent complaint by Spotify and similar lawsuits. EURACTIV Germany reports.
In the fight against fake news, YouTube has a ‘bias toward keeping content up’
YouTube has a systemic 'bias towards keeping content up,' although the video-sharing platform recently removed more than one million channels for violation of its policies as part of the EU's code of practice against disinformation, EURACTIV has learnt.