Google is ready for the European elections. That was the message that the Internet giant wanted to convey on Tuesday, 7 May, at a conference organised in Brussels in partnership with Debating Europe, where it presented an arsenal of tools to inform European citizens, support political campaigns, and protect elections from interference.
Informing citizens. Google actually made it its mission to “connect voters with relevant election information”.
“We noticed our users’ strong interest in voting but difficulties in finding basic information”, explained Malte Will, who is in charge of civic information at Google.
The company has therefore launched the website ‘howtovote.eu’, a search tool that assembles all the information voters need and real-time updates. Depending on the user’s nationality and place of residence, the tool lists the requirements to be able to vote in that country, the documents to be provided, and even the authorities to contact.
Supporting campaigns. Google wants to not only help citizens navigate among the thousands of candidates running in the European elections but also enable the candidates and political parties themselves to share their positions and priorities with voters.
Carolin Jahn from the civic information unit revealed that, as a first step, an information box will be set up on the Google search page associated with candidates or parties.
Once Google has carefully verified the candidate’s identity, he or she will be able to indicate three priorities that will appear on the search page associated with his or her name. The candidate may also publish statements, which must solely focus on his or her political campaign and positions. Google reserves the right to refuse to publish statements that violate its rules (for example, those asking for donations).
Protecting against manipulation. The company indicated that it was continuing to fight online disinformation and removing online hate speech, but it especially stressed its new online advertising policies that were first introduced in the United States in May 2018, then in India in January 2019, and in the EU in March 2019.
Every advertiser wishing to broadcast a political advertisement must be verified and authorised by Google from now on. Advertisements are now accompanied by the ‘paid by’ note, which reveals the name of the advertiser.
“The EU has been the biggest challenge”, felt Emma Swift, a trust and safety policy specialist, due to differences in languages, standards, and even campaign periods.
Google has also just launched its “transparency report,” which brings together all information on advertisements that present a political party, an elected official who is already in office, or a European Parliament candidate on a single platform.
Since 20 March 2019, 11,746 new political ads have been published on Google for a total of €706,550. The platform also gives an overview of advertising spending by country, provides a list of major political advertisers, lists all ads by candidate, and shows the targeting criteria used.
The company also remains vigilant in the face of cyber threats, especially during elections. The two largest are phishing and denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which aim to make a service unavailable, stressed Milan Zubíček of the ‘disinformation’ unit.
In order to protect itself from this, the company is asking its users to secure their Google accounts using the two-step verification system. It has also launched an ‘Advanced Protection Programme’ for the users who are the most at risk, such as political parties, NGOs, and investigative journalists. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)