Google

Google is eliminating its minority hiring goals that were created following the death of George Floyd in 2020 and will review its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the tech company announced on Wednesday, to comply with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on DEI in the public and private sectors.

Google is rethinking its goal of hiring from underrepresented groups and other aspects of its D.E.I. programs. The Silicon Valley giant also said it was reviewing other diversity programs and initiatives and would update them if they seemed risky or ineffective. Get it sent to your inbox. Get our best tech reporting from the week. Get it sent to your inbox. Sign up for the On Tech newsletter. Get our best tech reporting from the week. Get it sent to your inbox. Google tried for years to diversify its work...

The tech giant said in an email to staff on Wednesday that it will no longer set hiring goals to improve workplace diversity, the Wall Street Journal (NWS+0.56% ) reported. The company also reportedly told staff it is reviewing some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs after recent court decisions and President Donald Trump’s executive order to end DEI programs in the federal government. Google told staff it is “evaluating changes to our programs required to comply,” according to the Wall Street Journal. In the wake of George Floyd’s...

Google on Tuesday updated its ethical guidelines around artificial intelligence, removing commitments not to apply the technology to weapons or surveillance.

The company’s AI principles previously included a section listing four “Applications we will not pursue.” As recently as Thursday, that included weapons, surveillance, technologies that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” and use cases contravening principles of international law and human rights, according to a copy hosted by the Internet Archive.

Google said Monday it will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” in Google Maps after the Trump administration updates its “official government sources.”

The company also said it will start using the name “Mount McKinley” for the mountain in Alaska currently called Denali.

Last week, President Donald Trump signed executive actions that included an order to make the name changes on official maps and federal communications.

Google has notified the European Union that it won’t integrate work from fact-checking organizations into Search or YouTube, ahead of the bloc’s plans to expand disinformation laws. Google had previously signed a set of voluntary commitments that the EU introduced in 2022 to reduce the impact of online disinformation, which are in the process of being formalized into law under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Update, Jan. 8, 2025: This story, originally published Jan. 6, now includes details of other VPN-related vulnerabilities and further information regarding the threat searching for VPN apps on Google now brings to users.

The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed a historic breakup of Google, aiming to compel the tech giant to sell its Chrome web browser and prevent its Android operating system from favoring its own search engine.

The move comes after a federal court ruled in August that Google had maintained an abusive monopoly over the online search market for the past decade.

A post going viral on X shows two different results when searching for “Where can I vote for Harris” vs “Where can I vote for Trump.”

BREAKING: Google shows you where to vote for Harris, but not for Trump: pic.twitter.com/L3PUpPiNJ2

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 5, 2024

Verdict: Misleading

According to Google, it is because Harris is the name of a county in Texas, so it shows a map as intended. Results have nothing to do with manipulation.

X owner and Trump supporter Elon Musk reposted a message on Election Day claiming Google is helping Harris voters find polling places, while not doing the same for Trump voters, but the search giant is doing no such thing.

At about 3 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Musk reposted a conspiracy theory on X, the social media site he owns, that falsely claims Google is giving Kamala Harris an unfair advantage.