Google denies promoting content that opposes Bill 2630.
The company makes its opposition to the project clear, but states that its criticisms are made in a "public and transparent" manner through its official blog.
247 - O Google denied on Tuesday (2) acting to favor in its search results content critical to Bill 2630/2020, the Fake News Bill"The claims that we are expanding the reach of pages with content contrary to Bill 2630 in Search, to the detriment of others with favorable content, are false. Every time a person performs a search, our systems work to show them the most relevant results among thousands, sometimes millions, of web pages," says a statement from the company.
"We do not manually alter the search results lists to determine the position of a specific page under any circumstances. Our ranking systems apply consistently to all pages, including those managed by Google," the statement adds.
The company also states that it is clearly opposed to the content of Bill 2630, but says that its protests regarding the text are made in a "public and transparent" manner through the company's official blog and advertising campaigns: "We have invested in marketing campaigns to give wider visibility to our concerns, through advertisements in traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, and in digital media, including our advertising platforms and social networks. (...) We have explained the risks, which we consider legitimate, to the people who use our platforms and also to the different participants in the digital ecosystem. This includes content creators on YouTube, advertisers of all sizes, and news sites."
Google argues that Bill 2630 “was not discussed as widely as it should have been” given the changes it has undergone in recent weeks. “On the eve of the vote on Bill 2630, which was not discussed as widely as it should have been and has undergone significant changes in recent weeks, it is important that Brazilians are informed about the potential impacts in order to make an informed decision about how to participate in this discussion.”
According to the platform, Bill 2630 "ends up protecting those who produce disinformation," "jeopardizes access to and free distribution of content on the Internet," "gives broad powers to a government body to decide what Brazilians can see on the internet," "poses serious threats to freedom of expression," "harms Brazilian companies and advertisers," and "makes it difficult for Brazilians to access Google Search by treating search engines as social networks."