Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Google has again carried out layoffs which have an impact on a number of employees in the news division. An estimated 40-45 Google News employees will lose their jobs, according to an Alphabet union spokesperson.
A Google spokesperson confirmed the company’s cuts, but did not specify how many employees were affected.
“We are fully committed to building an information ecosystem, and News is part of our long-term investment,” he said, quoted from CNBC International, Thursday (19/10/2023).
“We made several internal changes for organizational efficiency. A small number of employees were impacted. We provided support in the transition period, as well as appropriate severance pay while they looked for other opportunities within Google and outside,” he added.
Google News is a division that provides news on the search engine giant by providing links to articles from thousands of media companies. This feature is very popular for netizens who actively use the Search service.
Users can see certain topics or articles that are ranked top on Google.
These layoffs were carried out in the midst of a complicated situation between Hamas and Israel which has claimed the lives of thousands of people in Israel and Gaza since October 7 2023. Apart from that, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is still continuing and entering its 20th month.
For this reason, Google News’ role is very important in providing users with the latest, accurate news about these two major wars.
This week, Senator Michael Bennet from the US Democratic Party asked for answers from Google, X/Twitter, Meta, and TikTok regarding the amount of false information circulating on their platforms. He assessed that algorithms from internet platforms often contain negative content which makes the situation even hotter.
Previously, European Commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton issued a warning to the bosses of the technology giant. He gives 1 x 24 hours for internet platforms to be clean of misleading information.
A Google spokesperson said the layoffs would not impact the quality of Google News in eradicating misleading news on its platform.
This year, Google has laid off several times. Last January, the company cut 12,000 employees or 6% of its total workforce. Last month, Google laid off hundreds of employees in its recruitment division again.
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Originally posted 2023-10-19 07:25:00.