The manager ensures that the threat of the Google Rate will not affect their plans for Spain.
Thousands of employees at Google try to curb the false news and violent content that is hanging on its subsidiary Youtube, although the multinational faces great criticism for having left the video of the killing in New Zealand – where 50 people died – was available for hours on this channel. “We have more than 10,000 employees trying to control false news (fakenews) and violent content and we are making great progress,” says Briton Matt Brittin, director for Europe, Africa and the Middle East of Google in an interview held in London. “The company has zero tolerance with this issue and it is terrible that this content was available, but it is not easy to control everything that users hang,” he says. According to their data, 400 hours of content are downloaded to the platform every minute.
The bad content
Two years ago, the company already faced a serious crisis when several large advertisers threatened to withdraw their campaigns because their ads appeared next to violent videos and that fomented homophobia. The company then took steps that have led it to work with more than a hundred organizations to define the limits when censoring content, says Brittin.
Algorithms
New measures have also been implemented that now allow 80% of inappropriate videos to be vetoed automatically by machines, without any person intervening.
However, the algorithms do not always do the right thing, as was proven in the case of the Christchurch mosques. “People make important decisions and machines allow for large-scale actions, and the work of both is essential in this battle,” says the manager, a former Olympian who previously worked in consultancy and for the British media group. Trinity Mirror and who works in the technology group since 2007. His career makes him a rare avis within a group controlled by computer scientists.
Control the contents is not the only headache that Google faces, to whom the European authorities have declared war. Hours after this interview was held, the European Commission announced the third fine to the company, this time for 1,490 million euros, due to its dominant position in the AdSense advertising platform.
In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, authorities are also considering putting more obstacles so that large technology companies can not make purchases. Meanwhile, Spain and London want to implement a new digital tax, popularly known as the Google Tax.
This tax is intended for large technology companies to pay between 2 and 3% of their income generated in the country where they register activity. Currently, Google pays 80% of its taxes in the United States.
Operations
Brittin assures that the company will continue with its operations in Spain, although the Government that leaves the next elections decides to follow ahead with its plans to apply this new technological rate to the multinational. “The direction of the Spanish Government is clear, but we do not decide what we do in a country because of the tax burden we receive, we will continue to bet for Spain in the long term,” he explains.
The Government of Pedro Sanchez announced the tax at the beginning of the year, but the measure, which entered Parliament for processing, has been paralyzed after the call for general elections. Sanchez has ensured that if he returns to La Moncloa he will implement this rate, which the United Kingdom also plans to implement in 2020.
The measure was to be approved by the entire European Union, but the veto of four countries – Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland – prevented its processing.
Now, the decision to carry out an international fiscal policy remains in the hands of the OECD. “The European governments have been nervous to see that international legislation did not come,” says Brittin. “Google is not against the legislation and we hope that the decision of the OECD is good for all.”