As the New Year begins, Google is renewing its focus on its Washington, DC lobbying operation after a 2017 ended with a damaged public image, and the possibility of unfavorable laws on the horizon.
Google had been entangled in several controversies, including the Russian involvement in the elections in 2016 and its use of Google’s ad platform to influence the think tanks and the academic research.
The previous year was a long and difficult for the cyber giant, it was the month of March when Google was brought into the election probe because of the millions of worth advertisements bought by the Russians, and much of YouTube’s content to be running along with the extremists.
Google’s brand image also was severely damaged, as it disclosed that the YouTube and other of the advertising platforms were used by the Russians to manipulate the 2016 elections.
This disclosure further agitated the lawmakers of the country and they went on to severely criticize the executives from Google, Facebook and Twitter. The companies involved were criticized by the lawmakers who said that they should have been more pro-active and should have taken preventive steps in the Russian interference to the elections, all the same doubting the company’s serious attempts to address the situation in a proper professional way.
“I must say, I don’t think you get it,” Senator Dianne Feinstein told the lawyers from Google, Facebook and Twitter, during a Nov. 1 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
“It is self-evident that in the past election you failed,” added, Senator Ron Wyden who was also present.
The past year’s difficult relationship between Washington and Google was almost unthought-of just a year back.
Google has always enjoyed a close and strong relationship with the White House Officials, the lawmakers, especially under the Obama era. The employees at Google had met with the Obama administration on a regular basis, helping them with policies, and many of the personnel were interchanged between the Capitol Hill and the Silicon Valley.
The Republicans had raised their doubts on the especially close relations of Democrats, Obama administration and Google’s top management, and Google was focusing on taking steps to improve the terms with Republicans. Google further tried in maintaining a strong presence in lobbies and donated to the congressional contenders from all across the country for both the parties.
Last year, however, saw Google in a constant struggle with both, its own public image and its relations with the Washington D.C. Google removed the advertisements quickly and the extremist content was also removed, even though the company never technically violated any of the terms of services set by themselves. It also took preemptive measures to make sure that the content is policed closely to avoid further incidents, and would be taking all the problematic videos actively.
Google now hopes to mend its relations and strives to regain the public image that had been damaged this past year.
