Report says Google ‘covered up’ internal communications through obfuscation strategies amid antitrust concerns

Google is one of the largest organizations on the Internet, responsible for dispersing information and facilitating communication through its many services, including Gmail. But while it’s busy helping hundreds of millions of users navigate their lives, it’s also protecting itself by concealing important internal communications to guard against litigation, according to reports belong to New York Times.

The seeds of this approach appear to have been sown in 2008, when Google faced antitrust scrutiny over an advertising deal with rival Yahoo. According to the Times report, Google employees have been instructed to avoid sarcasm, speculation, and to “think carefully” before discussing “hot topics” internally. This prompted the company to adjust its internal messaging tool to enable a “don’t save content” option, ensuring that any indiscreet messages would be deleted the next day.

“The memo became the first salvo in Google’s 15-year campaign to make deletion the default in its internal communications. Even as the internet giant stores the world’s information, it has created an office culture that tries to minimize its own,” the report said.

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Discovered during Google’s recent legal battle with Epic Games and the US DOJ

The New York Times claims that the details of this so-called “culture of mistrust” were pieced together by reviewing “hundreds of documents and exhibits, as well as witness statements, in three antitrust trials against Silicon Valley companies in the past year.”

The report claims that Google ultimately took further steps to keep internal communications “covered,” including advising employees to label documents as “attorney-client privileged.” and add Google’s attorney to the recipient list.

“Companies that anticipate litigation must preserve documents. But Google has exempted instant messaging from automatic legal holds. If workers are involved in a lawsuit, they have the right to turn on their chat history. From evidence in trials, very few people do that,” the report added.

Judge James Donato of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, who presided over the Epic vs Google case, observed that there was “a deeply ingrained, systemic culture of suppression of relevant evidence within Google.” and this alleged conduct is “a violation of the law.” a direct attack on the fair administration of justice.”

“A lot of evidence could have been destroyed,” said Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District Court of Virginia, who is overseeing Google’s antitrust case related to advertising technology.

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What does Google have to say?

Google, in a statement quoted by The New York Times, said, “Google does have an obligation to preserve and produce relevant documents. For many years, we have responded to inquiries and litigation, and trained our staff on legal privilege.”

Additionally, the company claims to have presented “millions of documents” in its fight against the US DOJ alone.

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