Report: Google Sought Greater Control over Research Writings

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The new review process aims to identify subjects that could be considered “sensitive” for the company. In at least three cases, Google officials asked writers not to show its technology in a bad light, Reuters reported. The news agency said its report was based on Google documents it was able to examine, as well as information from researchers involved in the work.

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The new process for “sensitive” subjects adds more careful study to Google’s usual review process for research papers, eight current and past employees said.

One subject considered “sensitive” was how some of Google’s machine learning-powered services might be biased against some groups of people. Other subjects included the oil industry, China, Iran, Israel, COVID-19, home security, location data, religion, self-driving vehicles, telecommunications and systems designed to suggest websites

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For some projects, Google officials intervened later in the research. Earlier this year, a Google official reviewing a study on content suggestion technology told the writers to “take great care to strike a positive tone,” documents provided to Reuters showed.

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Four researchers, including scientist Margaret Mitchell, said they believe Google is starting to interfere with important studies on the possible harms of technology.

“If we are researching the appropriate thing given our expertise, and we are not permitted to publish that on grounds that are not in line with high-quality peer review, then we’re getting into a serious problem of censorship,” Mitchell said.

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