Kremlin managed to “hack” Google’s algorithm – That brings Putin’s propaganda in people’s pockets
Russian propaganda regularly appears on Google Discover alongside general interest content. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK
Aleksandr Trifonov
Published 05.11.2024 2:13
Updated 05.11.2024 3:48
If one in Finland uses their phone in Russian, they might have seen some surprising headlines in October 2024.
“Finland plans to develop tourism with Russia”, runs one example. “Finns are waiting for the border with Russia to open”, states another.
The first story is completely made up. The second is based to a real news story, but it is completely rewritten to fit a pro-Russian narrative. For someone who does not have journalistic training or does not follow the news regularly, the difference would be hard to notice.
The stories are examples of Russian state propaganda that regularly appear on Google Discover. It is essentially the start page of Google Chrome browser and Google app on every smartphone or tablet. On some Android devices, Discover is built in and appears, when user swipes right on their home screen. According to expert estimates, the service is now used by at least one billion people per month.
Satakieli tested the phenomenon with an iPhone that is in use in Finland. Its operating language is Russian, but the phone has also been used for communication in other languages. It has not been used to search content from the Russian state media on purpose.
We found out that Russian propaganda articles regularly appear on Google Discover feed among other varied media content. You don’t need to try to find the propaganda yourself, instead, it finds you.
This happened despite Google supposedly takes measures to fight misinformation online.
The propaganda is coupled with general interest articles
Media researcher and founder of the news aggregator The True Story, Lev Gershenzon, is familiar with the problem. Already for several years, he has tried to draw attention to what he believes is a glaring problem with Russian-language content in Google Discover.
According to Gershenzon, the issue stems from a poor algorithm for selecting and displaying personalized content to users.
“The Kremlin managed to understand how this algorithm works and ‘hack’ it,” he explains.
Pro-Russian websites produce a lot of general interest content without politics. That draws audience. Google’s algorithm sees this engagement as positive feedback and is more likely to promote all the content published on them same websites – also political propaganda.
In addition to this, Google takes into account the language in which the device is used and its location. For instance, in a device used in Finland in Russian, stories from Republic of Karelia and Saint Petersburg, that are next to the Finnish border, appear in the Google Discover.
No space for opposition media
During the years, Google have taken at least some action against Russian propaganda, Gershenzon says. For example in 2023, two important Russian media outlets, Tsargrad TV and kp.ru disappeared from Google Discover. Both are known as aggressive promoters of Russian imperial narratives that, according to Gershenzon, each recorded half a million clicks a day.
“But some reason, propaganda sites like hibiny.ru or ura.ru remained,” he says. “Now the Kremlin simply floods pro-Russian traffic through them.”
According to Gershenzon, deliberate promotion of certain resources by the Russian state actors can be seen in traffic figures. For example, the Murmansk-based hibiny.ru has hit traffic figures of over one million clicks a day.
“That’s more people than there are living in the entire Murmansk region.”
At the same time, the outlets of the Russian democratic opposition, such as meduza.io or theins.ru, almost never get their stories into Discover.
That’s partly because after access to their websites was blocked in Russia, they lost up to 80 percent of their traffic, Gershenzon explains. For Google’s algorithms, that signals that the sites no longer interest the audience, and they are downgraded in the rankings.
For two years, Gershenzon has tried without success to get official response for Google to explain the company’s behaviour. He believes that tracking and removing pro-Russian propaganda remains a low priority for the corporation, although he has noticed a minor decrease in political content in Discover since May 2024.