4 hours ago
Last Updated:November 21, 2024, 08:49 IST
Google has reportedly advised employees to avoid speculation and sarcasm in internal communications and has enabled "off the record" messaging to minimise risks of antitrust lawsuits.
The logo of Google LLC is shown on a building in San Diego, California (Photo: Reuters)
Nearly 16 years after Google, in 2008, faced antitrust scrutiny over an advertising deal with its rival Yahoo, the search engine giant has reportedly asked its employees to refrain from speculation and sarcasm and “think twice" before writing one another about “hot topics".
The employees were also instructed to not comment before they had all the facts.
According to The New York Times, Google’s action, advising its employees to watchout their internal communication, came as it aims to minimise the odds of antitrust suits.
Further, the company has even changed the setting for its instant messaging tool to “off the record", and An incautious phrase would be wiped the next day, the report claimed.
In 2008, Google had confronted lawsuits involving patent, trademark and copyright claims, while its executives sent out a confidential memo, stating that they “believed that information is good".
However, they added that government regulators or competitors might seize on words that Google workers casually, thoughtlessly wrote to one another.
The report claims that the memo has become the first salvo in a 15-year campaign by Google to make deletion the default in its internal communications. Even as the internet giant stored the world’s information, it created an office culture that tried to minimise its own, it stated.
The report also stated it pieced together hundreds of documents and exhibits, as well as witness testimony, in three antitrust trials against the Silicon Valley company over the last year to learn about Google’s “distrustful culture".
GOOGLE FACES CALL FOR NEW EU PROBES
On November 20, Google faced a call for additional investigations into its compliance with landmark European Union rules aimed at reining in Big Tech.
Privacy-focused internet search engine DuckDuckGo, which research company Statista said had a global market share of 0.54 per cent in January this year, urged the European Commission to open three additional investigations.
Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act adopted in 2022, Google and six other tech companies are required to make it easier for users to switch to rival services and banned from favouring their products on their platforms, among other obligations.
The world’s most popular internet search engine is already the target of two Digital Markets Act (DMA) investigations related to its app store Google Play’s rules and whether it discriminates against third-party services on Google search results.
Google said it was working with industry, experts and the Commission and has made significant changes to its products to comply with the DMA.
Location : First Published:November 21, 2024, 08:40 IST
News world Google Asks Employees To 'Think Twice' On Internal Messages To Avoid Antitrust Suits: Report
