Google has announced the suspension of all political advertisements in South Korea leading up to the country’s general elections in April, as per The Korea Times. The ban encompasses all Google-owned platforms, including YouTube, Google Search, and the Google Play Store.
Google also intends to guide users to credible information about voting methods and voter registration by providing links on its homepage. Additionally, the company plans to offer election-related information panels in YouTube search results, connecting users with trustworthy sources for further details.
As South Korea joins the lineup of nations with significant elections in 2024, Google is part of its efforts to combat misinformation and address voter bias, echoing similar initiatives taken after major elections globally. However, it is uncertain whether Google will apply this policy to other election-bound countries like India.
Why does it matter?
As reported by Medianama, this isn’t the first time Google has implemented such a ban; it previously did so after the US Presidential election in 2020 and before elections in the Philippines, Canada, and Singapore. While it’s unclear if this trend will continue in other countries gearing up for elections, Google has already established stricter regulations in India. These include identity verification, pre-certification by the Election Commission, and transparency measures through initiatives like the Google Ads Transparency Centre.
The digital asset issues reemerged in the US presidential election race. The highest polling candidate of the Republican Party for the November election, and the former US President Donald Trump, has reiterated his strong opposition to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) during a rally in Laconia, New Hampshire.
Former president Trump, firmly stated that he would never allow the creation of a CBDC, citing concerns over the potential threat to personal freedom and the government’s absolute control over individuals’ money. He warned that a central bank digital currencies would give the federal government the power to seize money without people even realizing it.
Trump’s stance on CBDCs has garnered support, with two crypto-friendly candidates, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis, suspending their campaigns and endorsing Trump. This suggests that there is substantial support among Republican primary voters for Trump’s position on CBDCs.
The absence of pro-crypto candidates may lessen the focus on digital assets in the presidential race, according to CoinDesk. It remains to be seen how extensively the topic will be discussed throughout the campaign.
The TikTok controversy, as the Economist put it, is ‘a test of whether global internet can remain intact as US-China relations deteriorate’.
The background of the TikTok controversy is geopolitics and the forthcoming US elections. There is concern that TikTok could be used to influence elections.
The protection of privacy is sometimes indicated as the main risk from TikTok. However, this is not the case now as TikTok data is publicly available for scrapping.
However, the main concern of the US political elite is the potential manipulation of US users by this Chinese company. For example, a quarter of US users use TikTok as a news source.
TikTok algorithms that could be used for manipulation are developed mainly in Beijing.
There are a few things that TikTok can do to address the risk of being shut down by US authorities, including:
Having data held by Oracle, as TikTok has already been doing since the legal action by the Trump administration
Letting third parties inspect TikTok algorithms, including showing the source code and allowing ongoing inspection
According to the Economist, ‘TikTok should be ultimately responsible to an independent board of its own, with members from outside China.’
China is likely to oppose requests for inspections of TikTok’s algorithms, which may lead to TikTok and other digital companies being shut down by the USA and other Western countries. The outcome of the TikTok political controversy will have far-reaching consequences for a global internet.
