Google has launched an offensive against Bill 2630, the bill that regulates the internet and which should be voted on this Tuesday (2), the company shows emails, prints and articles obtained by Folha, in addition to a survey by NetLab, from the Federal University University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Anyone who used Google this Monday (1st) came across a link right below the search box, with the words: "The fake news bill can make your internet worse". The link takes you to a Google blog post with numerous criticisms of the project.
According to the data site Statista, 97% of Brazilians use Google for internet searches.
According to a NetLab survey, the platform is also privileging links to content that oppose the bill in the search results about the subject, in addition to Google's own ads criticizing the new legislation.
Sought out by Folha's reporting team, the platform denied favoring links against the bill in its search engine and stated that its ranking systems apply to all web pages, including those run by them.
On a social network, Minister Flávio Dino (Justice) posted an image of the Google page with a link to the bill and said that he would forward the case for analysis to the National Consumer Department, in his cabinet, "in view of the possibility of it being a case of abusive practices by companies".
According to NetLab, when searching for "Bill 2630" in the search engine, among the first results is an advertising link with the title: "Censorship Bill". It leads to a post on Google's blog that says the proposal "could make your internet worse."
Besides this, the other links that appear in the first search results for the term are official, such as those by the Senate and Congress, from press vehicles and hyper-partisan websites that oppose the bill, such as Revista Oeste, PlenoNews, PLdaCensura and Boletim da Liberdade, owned by former congressman Paulo Ganime (Novo-RJ), who leads a campaign against the regulation, as well as videos from the Brasil Paralelo channel on YouTube.
Youtubers have been receiving since Friday (28) emails from YouTube stating that they will lose money if the project is approved. The messages state that the bill compromises "our revenue sharing model".
They say that by being forced to pay for journalistic content, as provided for in Article 32 of the bill, there would be "fewer funds to invest in you, in all our creators and in the programs to help you develop your audience". In the end, the company urges youtubers to talk "with their congressmen on social networks still today".
According to Marie Santini, coordinator of NetLab, Google's algorithm that determines the ranking of sites in the search engine normally shows the results in order of relevance. It is among the criteria that the link has been cited by other reputable sources on the internet.
"What seems to us is that Google has pondered the search results in such a way as to increase the relevance of its own voice on its platform."
According to her, "this could constitute abuse of economic power on the day before the voting" to try to impact public opinion and the votes of parliamentarians.
In a note, Google states that the "allegations do not correspond to reality".
"We do not manually alter the results lists to determine the position of a specific page. Our ranking systems apply consistently to all web pages, including those run by Google."
Translated by Cassy Dias