20 million transitions per day: Android service spreads Russian propaganda-Bloomberg
Discover is a content tape in Chrome browser on Android devices. Here you can see horoscopes mixed with reviews of mobile applications and news. All links in the tape are designed equally - a large picture and a little text in small font indicating the source. However, according to journalists, many sites that promote Discover pursue much larger goals than simply attracting the audience's attention.
In particular, the Discover ribbon regularly appears to the tsarrad TV news site, known for far -right content, gross distortion of facts and misinformation. In particular, after the Russian rocket attack on the village of Groz in Kharkiv region, where more than half of the local residents were killed, Tsargrad published a material that accused Ukraine of the task of this blow.
Another article of the publication states that "President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky recruits fighters" terrorist organization of IDIL. According to Bloomberg, the Tsargrad, which is governed by the Kremlin's businessman and the Kremlin Houseman Konstantin Malofeev, received more than 200,000 transitions to his page daily. Together with the publication of Malofeev, Discover regularly appears to other pro -Kremlin media, such as "Komsomolskaya Pravda".
Google Discover's Tsargrad Content has a particularly strange appearance, given that 2020, YouTube has blocked all videos of its channel. After that, the Russian court fined Google, which led to bankruptcy of the local unit of 2022. In a report for the EU of September 26, Google stated that it "managed to effectively interfere with Russian information operations (IO) aimed at supporting the internal support of the war" and to stop 1950 cases of Russian IO-activity on its platforms during 2022.
Among other things, Google blocked the state Riszma and stopped them for content. In response, the Kremlin banned Google News in Russia, although other services of Alphabet's parent company, including YouTube and Google Search, continue to work. At the same time, more than 80% of mobile phones owners in the Russian Federation use Android operating system and Discover, which regularly illuminates Putin media.
According to the source with Google, Discover generates much less income than Google Search, so it also has a lower budget to prevent abuse. According to the company, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Google has significantly limited the promotion of Russian state media in its products, including Discover. "We strive to display content that demonstrates experience, authority and reliability.
We have strict rules that publishers have to follow to appear on Discover, and the forbidden content is removed," said Google Megan Farnswort. According to Lev Hershenzon, a German entrepreneur of Russian descent, who by 2012 headed the news department of the Yandex search engine, Google Discover provides more than 20 million transitions by Russian media daily. "The role of Google in the spread of guidance propaganda is getting worse.
Solving this problem should not be difficult, but they do not even recognize that the problem exists," Gershenzon said. We will remind, the TV channel "Russia 1" published in his story the Polish Elblong for Kaliningrad. According to Russian journalists, Kalinigrad allegedly remains competitive even in Western sanctions. Earlier, Focus wrote how Roszma was forced to illuminate events around Karabakh.