Google staff tried to block Breitbart from Google AdSense less than one month after President Donald Trump took office, leaked emails from the company reveal
Google internal emails were published by far right website Breitbart yesterday
The internet giant’s employees say that Breitbart could have been demonetized if sufficient examples of hate speech were found on its website
Breitbart accuses Google of being politically biased, which its CEO has denied
DAILYMAIL.COM
11 December 2018
Google employees considered banning far-right news outlet Breitbart from Google AdSense on ‘moral’ grounds – which would have stopped it taking in advertising revenue, internal leaked emails reveal.
Employees expressed concerns in February 2017 about ‘hate speech’ and ‘fake news’ appearing on Breitbart – a commentary website founded in 2007 which became closely associated with .
They urged other staff to squash its revenue by blocking it from AdSense, Google’s advertising program which dominates the digital advert market.
Breitbart published the internal emails – dated from the month after President Trump took office – yesterday alleging that Google was ‘plotting the downfall of this website’, although in the event Google never went through with the ban.
In February 2017, Google employee Richard Zippel emailed a colleague, David Richter, to say he would act against Breitbart News only if numerous examples of hate speech were found on the site.
‘When sufficient violations have been found we’ll take action at the site level,’ Zippel wrote.
Afterwards, Richter emailed other employees asking if anyone would scour Breitbart for evidence of hate speech.
In the subsequent email chain, Jim Gray – Google’s Director of monetization said that Breitbart was being monitored ‘since the origin[al] fake news kick-off discussion.’
The Rest…HERE
