In order to prevent false information about the federal election, Google wants to prominently place secure information from the Federal Returning Officer with its own information area. Youtube is also taking part.
In the future, Google will display secure information in a separate information area for search queries about the upcoming elections in Germany.
The company announced this in Berlin. It is about answers to questions like “When does the postal vote start?” “How do I choose?” or «Which parties are running for the Bundestag election?».
According to Google, the “instructions for voting” are based on information from the Federal Returning Officer. The aim is to prevent the spread of false information, said the head of the Google News Lab in the DACH region, Isabelle Sonnenfeld.
As of now, YouTube will also provide reliable information on voting, announced Google lawyer Sabine Frank. In the search function there will be an information area on the approved parties and the respective candidates.
Most recently, the display of information from government sources had caused trouble at Google. As part of a cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Health, an info box from the portalheil.bund.de, which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, was prominently displayed in the results of Google search queries about diseases or complaints. This cooperation was reprimanded by the state media authorities and stopped by Google after protests from the media industry.
In the run-up to the federal elections, citizens can now use Google Trends to get an idea of which political topics, parties and politicians are currently appearing particularly frequently in Google search queries. As part of the Google News Initiative, the search engine company has now financed a new visualization of search trends. “The search streams project shows exciting comparisons of search interest in federal political issues over the past twelve months,” said Google spokesman Ralf Bremer.
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