Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Google still needs to try a lot harder to do the right thing

Also in Any Other Business: a post-Brexit opportunity, the return of Bob Diamond, and a justifiable pay bonanza

Shortly before agreeing, early last year, to pay token back taxes on a decade’s worth of UK-generated profits, Google also abolished its global slogan ‘Don’t be evil’. Instead it adopted a code of conduct that urged employees to ‘do the right thing’ — but at least in one important respect, they didn’t. Marks & Spencer, HSBC, Audi and numerous other top brands found their banner adverts displayed alongside a variety of YouTube hate videos which Google had failed to exclude, apparently because it did not have sufficient resources to monitor all the video content that was being uploaded at the rate of 400 hours per minute.

For fear of losing a chunk of its UK ad revenues, the company has apologised and promised to do better. But the episode reminds us again of the slipperiness of the 21st-century digital mega-corporation.
In Google’s case, that has meant paying taxes akin to those paid by terrestrial companies only as a negotiated last resort when embarrassed into doing so, while trying to duck responsibility for publishing much of the vilest and most disturbing material on the planet. Yet we all use Google many times a day, believing it to be a miraculous knowledge channel that is also benign, or at least morally neutral. And so it should be, but given its hugely influential position in all our lives, it needs to try a lot harder.

Here’s a Brexit opportunity

As I’ve said before, the bellwether of post-Brexit prosperity will be the health of the UK car industry, rather than that of the far larger financial sector. The City is nimble enough to look after itself come what may; it requires little more than plug sockets and clever lawyers to outmanoeuvre barriers to its trade. Car-makers, by contrast, require massive investment in research, robotics and logistics to keep them at the cutting edge of a globalised manufacturing system operating on the tightest of margins.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in