Google's lower ranking of Sputnik and Russia Today articles would be censorship: Russia foreign ministry

Google was working to give less prominence to “those kinds of websites” as opposed to delisting them said Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on 23 November that moves by Alphabet Inc’s Google to place articles from Russian news outlets Sputnik and Russia Today lower in search results would amount to censorship. [caption id=“attachment_4203203” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Google. Reuters.[/caption]

Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, speaking on stage at an international forum on 18 November, responded to a question about Sputnik articles appearing on Google by saying the company was working to give less prominence to “those kinds of websites” as opposed to delisting them.

Speaking at a news briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on 23 November Google was acting under strong political pressure from the U.S. authorities.