Does Google ever lie? Look through these 969,000,000 results and decide for yourself

Big tech soon may be paying for the news it lifts. David Swan in The Australian, Monday:

International groups representing publications across the US and the UK have thrown their support behind Australia’s “big tech” bargaining code, calling on the federal government to hold firm and declaring that if successful, a similar mechanism should be implemented in their jurisdictions.

But Google claims it does pay. Kieran Gair in The Australian, Monday:

Google also claims in the new ads that it “already pays Australian news companies”. However, it agreed to pay only a small number of publishers … Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology, said the new ads were a “classic political play” aiming to “create fear” by shifting the focus away from whether Google should pay for news to its search engine.

Does Google ever lie? Well, let’s Google “Does Google ever lie?” and find out:

About 969,000,000 results (0.45 seconds)

We don’t have time to read them all. Let’s have a look at the first result:

Google gives relevant results foor (sic) the person searching. It does not give truths. A statement X can be a lie for person A but can be the truth for person B. So google does not give anwsers (sic) to questions, and therefore it does not lie.

Google give answers to questions? Sort of. This one was from US congressman David Cicilline, Yahoo News, July 30:

One entrepreneur, Brian Warner, told us his website was thriving until Google stole his content, after Google’s decision traffic to his website dropped by 80%. He had to downsize his business and lay off ½ his staff. He told us, and I quote, “If someone came to me with an idea for a website or a web service today, I’d tell them to run. Run as far away from the web as possible. Launch a lawn care business or dog grooming business, something Google can’t take away as soon as he or she is thriving.” So my first question, Mr Pichai, why does Google steal content from honest businesses?

A straightforward question. Let’s see how Google boss Sundar Pichai responds:

Mr Chairman, with respect, I disagree with that characterisation …

Cicilline’s a busy man. Which he explains to Pichai:

I have a limited amount of time. So I don’t want (to) interrupt you but my question is very specific. We heard throughout this investigation that Google has stolen content to build your own business. These are consistent reports, and so your — your testimony that that doesn’t happen is really inconsistent with what we’ve learned during the course of the investiga­tion.

It’s not just Google. Columbia Journalism Review report The Facebook Armageddon, 2018:

Author and journalism professor Dan Gillmor recently described a future in which “we will be living in the ecosystem of a company that has repeatedly demonstrated its untrustworthiness, an enterprise that would become the primary newsstand for journalism and would be free to pick the winners via special deals with media people and tweaks of its opaque algorithms. If this is the future, we are truly screwed.”

Google “Does Facebook ever lie?”:

About 896,000,000 results (0.53 seconds)

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