Pichai urges Google staff to ensure products remain trusted info source

In a memo to employees, Pichai reminded them of their role, stating, “whoever the voters choose, let’s remember our responsibility at work, through the products we create and as a business: to be a trusted source of information for people of all backgrounds and beliefs.”

San Francisco: As the White House race entered the crucial counting stage, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees to make sure that “the products we build” are “a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief.”

In a memo to employees, Pichai said whomever the voters entrust, “let’s remember the role we play at work, through the products we build and as a business: to be a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief”.

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“We will and must maintain that. In that spirit, it’s important that everyone continue to follow our Community Guidelines and Personal Political Activity Policy,” he wrote in the internal memo.

Teams across Google and YouTube have been working hard to make sure that the platforms provide voters with high-quality and reliable information, “just as we’ve done for so many other elections around the world”.

“In fact, dozens of countries have held major, hotly contested elections this year, from France to India to the UK to Mexico and many more, with well over a billion people casting votes in 2024,” Pichai noted.

As with other elections, the outcome will be a major topic of conversation in living rooms and other places around the world. And of course, the outcome will have important consequences.

“Beyond election day, our work to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful will continue. Al has given us a profound opportunity to make progress on that mission, build great products and partnerships, drive innovation, and make significant contributions to national and local economies. Our company is at its best when we’re focused on that,” Pichai elaborated.

Earlier, Meta had announced to extend ban on new political ads on Facebook and Instagram even after the US presidential election on November 5. In its political ads policy update, Meta has extended ban on new political ads past Tuesday, the original end date for the restriction period.