Google’s Issues Of Russian Advertisements: A Case Study

Case Description

Discuss about the Google’s Issues Of Russian Advertisements.

In the beginning of October, Google Inc. released its sustainability report of 2016 and it described the year as a landmark year. Google has always been trying to progress on objectives to meet the environmental issues. Google does an excellent job in providing high-speed data solutions to the users and Google uses many cloud platforms that users can utilise technologies. In this regard, each of the organisations has its own responsibility in corporate culture and work. Google as technology giant in technology cannot overlook its approach in mitigating risks in technology. In this report, the case of Google’s issues of Russian advertisements on Google will be described. At first, Google was not frank in speaking about Russian ads on Google in a sustainability report. Google was silent on the issue of Russian ads and the process of addressing the solution.

This case is related to the business ethics of Google as Google is treated as one of the transparent organisations in the world. Google’s sustainable report must have focused about Russian ads issue that was predominant in most of 2016 during Russian election. Google is in an ethical dilemma when other media houses revealed that Russian-bought advertisements were mainly placed on YouTube, Gmail and other Google-based platforms. Businesses must be ethical and it must follow corporate citizenship. Holistic concept of ethical practices of corporate culture follows as for how the company ensures process and policies. In case of Google, most of the stakeholders are not aware of the semantics that Google is using. Google packages its corporate responsibility as sustainability and it proposes corporate citizenship. Users of Google want to know that Google should be more transparent in corporate governance performance and company’s social responsibility practices.

In the computerisation of digital advertising, technologies are the main responsible for running ads. Technologies and the experts decide in appearing of the ads in web pages. Google has been performing in this field and it is called programmatic advertising. It is billion dollar industry as the internet is one of the vast media that can attract people. Google has its responsibility to maintain corporate ethics in running the ads. Now the fundamental shifting has been noticed in reaching the users. Google decides where the ads will be running and data of audiences decide the factors. However, with great power, there comes great responsibility. Google does not use infrastructure of digital advertising and Google is not managing the inventory that comes enough in making the data available. In case of Russian ads, when people clicked on the advertisement link, it automatically installed on the system of the users. Google tried to remove the ads, however, for a couple of days, it was not possible for them. Google, however, launched an investigation of the Russian ads. It was clear that one Russian firm took the responsibility to influence the people during Russian election. Google could not disseminate misinformation easily when it invaded users’ systems.

Stakeholders of Google Inc.

Google identified in ad buys by Russian accounts which had used in Google advertisements and YouTube video to spread misinformation about Russian election. These accounts had also been used for sowing the discord in politics of America. Google provides advertisements services and it is billion dollars industry in digital marketing section. Google has been using modern technologies in identifying the accounts which have been posted for the advertisements (Byers 2017). However, some of the Russia based accounts posted misinformation in YouTube and Google advertisements and in DoubleClick platforms in order to push divisive campaigns on various issues like gun rights and race immigration in America. However, Google could not identify the Google accounts which had done the wrong deeds. In the later time, Google team has identified that most of the accounts are related to the Internet Research Agency and it is based on Kremlin-link Troll Farm. Troll Farm is associated with buying ads for social media, Facebook and Twitter. However, in the previous time, Google has averred that it could not find any links of misrepresentation in advertisements and they were unable to find any links (Csrhub.com 2017). However, Google also said that they are not sure about linking with IRA and these accounts can extend beyond the Twitter and Facebook.

In case of Facebook, these advertisements reached 10 million people. It has been clear that most of the advertisements reached a maximum number of people. In case of Google, it tries to make transparent in works of business. Google has two separate policies in order to deal with the account creating and for the one who can buy advertisements. Therefore, it gets harder for Google to police accounts that created for advertisements or YouTube campaigns, maybe, these accounts are not paying money to advertise. Google has been facing these issues as people are making free accounts for Gmail activities, however, people are using those accounts to promote their business using those free accounts (Kaye 2017). Moreover, Google spokesperson Mrs Faville rightly opined that Google has policies and limit in political campaigning and religion campaigning on Google page. Like other social networking sites, Google’s parent organisation Alphabet had to agree to publicly testify the hearing in front of House Intelligence Committee and Senate. Facebook identified approximately 470 accounts that shared misinformation of Russian election and religious fervour of American; they demanded that most of the accounts used Gmail to log in to Facebook (Theguardian.com 2017). 

Google is the one who is to blame by the media as it is the largest online advertisement seller in the world. Google must have a team who can scrutinise the content of the advertisement before it rolls out in public. Google must have the corporate responsibility as it is related to cybersecurity and ethics. Google has more than 40% revenue in digital marketing only in the USA and this is related to YouTube videos and Google advertisements. Google should have tracked the misuse of the platforms and Business ethics should have followed (The Verge 2017). Google demands that it has transparent work culture and it follows corporate responsibility strictly, however, the biased advertisements of politics and religion based ads spread without Google notice. Google investigated the matter and it emphasised especially on the advertisements which cost less than $100,000 (Wang 2017). Google is not sure that all the advertisements came from Troll Farms or it came from a different origin. Some of the media strictly criticised Google and referred that Google does not do scrutiny of the accounts. Facebook published more than 3000 Russian ads publicly and these ads are done by Russian government-affiliated Troll Farm. The incident of Russian ads makes one thing clear that Russian online platform can influence many of the American technology in misleading the online services and platforms.

Stakeholders of the Google Inc. are various as they are mainly group based and they share the interest. Google takes corporate responsibilities for the stakeholders. Stakeholders of the Google are users, employees, investors, governments, communities and advertisers and other consumers (Washingtonpost.com 2017). Google is technological giant and it reaches almost all counties in the world. Google’s top priority stakeholders are employees as they run the originations. Google takes various measures in order to improve the condition of the employees. Second most important stakeholder of Google is an advertiser. Advertisers are the main sources of Google to generate revenue of the organisation. These stakeholders are mostly interested in having effective services from Google. In this case, Google provides advantages to the advertisers and advertisers are taking this benefit and spreading cybercrime. Business ethics of Google is being violated as corporate responsibility towards the society may not be followed by Google. Google’s ‘code of conduct’ says ‘don’t be evil’ and Google’s main aim is to provide unbiased access to information to the users. Following the law and regulation in respective countries is important and Google sets high practical and inspirational reasons to be loyal to the users.

In business ethics, there are two types of ethics that are followed in business decision-making concept. In descriptive ethics, it attempts to explain moral systems of societies and groups and it uncovers mainly the moral beliefs of individuals. Descriptive ethics is related to the values, ethical ideas, wrong and right behaviours or actions and moral systems (Crane and Matten 2016). In normative ethics, it is related to main actions that are wrong or right. In this case, Google collects huge amounts of data on the users who use the search engine. Google stores the records of users’ search history in order to develop the corporate efficiency. Google keeps the records of the users for more than nine months and then they get deleted. Google became awestruck when it came to know that social networking services and online paid platforms were deeply manipulated by the Russian government. Google asks its employees to follow the code of conducts and Google has its ethics and compliance helpline. Google also asks the employees not to violate the laws and regulations. In an organisation, corporate ethics are related to the integrity of employees and management must be honest to deal with the situation. The management has to stand on what is right. Moreover, as opined by Trevino and Nelson (2016), management or board of directors must show respect to employees and stakeholders with fairness and dignity. Ethics is also associated with the employees’ accountable for actions and commitments towards the organisation (Fifka 2013). In addition, organisations are treated as responsible citizens and it should follow the rules and laws in each country where it operates. In case of Google, it also follows the rules and regulations; however, it does not keep track of the accounts of the users’. The Troll Farm of the Russia used the ‘trench’ of Google’s regulation and misled the people.

Organisations try to promote associate awareness and commit to conducting the business in highest ethical standards. Google also follows the compliance policy and adheres to the code of ethics in pertinent regulations and business. Some of the organisations do ethics training for the management in order to understand the ethical needs and it is to ensure that organisations should do business ethically. As stated by Bowie (2017), Google prohibits retaliation for any employees who can participate in possible violation and investigation process. Google follows the ethics in serving the users and it provides high standards services to the users. Google has ethics in integrity and users trust the name of Google. Google trusts the users and it strives to earn more trust with communicating with the users. Google also tries to provide services that are useful to the users and Google has various types of users (Leipziger 2017). However, Google should have systems to track the users’ activities in order to identify them. Most importantly, Google remembers that they ask for users’ information, however, preserving someone’s data is related to the privacy policy. Google does not share the data with any third party users and unauthorised access is strictly prohibited. Google follows freedom of expression and it tries to advance in the privacy policy and free of expression. It tries to implement it in the world as it tries to develop it in around the world. Moreover, Google has been facing issues in cybersecurity as responsiveness is needed and strict scrutiny can solve the issue (Ferrel and Fraedirch 2015). User’s content and advertisements must come under the vigilance of Google team.

In case of Google’s incident of Russian ads that reached millions of people. Russian advertiser who bought these ads was connected to the Kremlin. The impact of the significant breach of the regulations posed by Google was on mainly Google itself as from the perspectives of worldwide media; Google is now ethical breached organisation. People now believe that Google’s vigilance can be breached easily (Blowfield and Murray 2014). This incident imposed the negative impact on Google as the sustainable policy of Google now is in question and efficiency of Google’s team is at stake as Google took a few months to identify the accounts (Weiss 2014). Google took help of Facebook in order to identify the accounts and its link up with Russian agency. Another stakeholder of this incident who has been facing negative impact was American political party for whom these ads were running. Russian Troll Farm proved that Google can be fooled and it was a moral win for them to run the ad campaign without notice of the Google. As stated by Hoffman et al. (2014), businesses command huge resources and it can impact on society. Each business has a social responsibility and Google has been following this since long. However, there are grey areas in the business and in this case; management has to provide the best judgement. Incorporate security, the organisation itself does not share any information of the clients. Managers of the business should not make promises to the shareholders in many cases. The primacy of consequentialist ground, as opined by Hartman et al. (2014), firms should be managed in the interest of shareholders, not in the interest of managers’ themselves. As stated in the stakeholders’ theory, managers should not run the business only on the benefits of shareholders; managers need to make balance in the interests of all stakeholders.

Business transformation programmes

Google is a large organisation and even if it wants to make some organisational changes initiatives, it would not be easy. The company has been following the same Codes of Practices for long and Google can warp ethical climate by putting stress on change the top. Leaders in the Google need to understand the stakeholders’ interests and it would be lucrative for them to have business transformation programme. Leaders may have a conflict of interests and some leaders may counter values. In ethical dilemma and breach of ethics that come from stakeholders, Google needs to take strong standpoint and transformation or alteration of policies would be beneficial for them. In order to be the sustainable organisation, Google needs to identify the benefits. The investment, philanthropy and the corporate social responsibility; each part of the business must be highlighted. Google should highlight those issues and business transformation will be successful through these.                      

Engage the stakeholders

Google has the corporate responsibility as Google thinks itself as one of the leaders in corporate citizenship. In this regard, stakeholders’ engagement is important. In stakeholders’ theory, it is mentioned that while making the policies of the organisation, each of the stakeholders’ interests should be checked. Stakeholders’ may come from different cultures and ethical issues can be profoundly difficult. Stakeholders’ engagement makes the communication easy and it can provide benefits to the organisation and also to stakeholders. Russian Troll Farm’s ethical breach to Google could be avoided if the stakeholders’ engagement was there with the viable plan. Business ethics is basically normative and vast choices of decisions need to take in making an ultimate decision. Google needs to be more transparent in publishing a report to the stakeholders as entire business process and sustainability are prescribed in this report. Google should let the stakeholders know about their expectations.

Establish systems and process

Google knows where it stands in the market and it knows what really matters to them. In this scenario, as Google is in the technological field, it needs to improve systems and process. Google’s account making system should be more secure. Using Google’s accounts, users can easily post advertisements and Google cannot identify the accounts. Google needs to ban the accounts as well as the misrepresented advertisements also. Systems and process of technology and organisation running procedure should be renewed. More transparent and ethical work can be progressed through refurbishing of the systems. Collaboration must be facilitated with an implementation of new initiatives.

Conclusion

It has been observed that Google did not breach any regulations; however, some weak policies of Google made it easier for Russian Troll Farm to post the advertisement on Russian politics. Google’s account making policy should be revised. Google avoided this issue when it published it sustainable report at the end of 2016, however, they should have published this issue and made everything transparent. People should know the actual issue what had happened. Google mainly follow principles of serving the users, respect the stakeholders, preserve confidentiality, protect Google’s assets and obey the law and regulations. The Government can also use Google information in order to investigate any case. Moreover, Google makes the free million of books online and many publishers made a lawsuit against Google in digitalising any information. In this way, Google tries to make happy the stakeholders in recent view of corporate responsibility. In this case, Google found out that Russian agents purchased ads on from wide ranges of a network during 2016 presidential election. The theoretical perspectives of the business ethics are related to the normative ethics and it is regulated as the academic discipline. In business ethics, there are varieties of disciplines that are related to corporate ethics, philosophy, economics, psychology and public policy. In normative ethics, the management of business makes some assumptions in an economic framework. The management makes assumptions that buyers and sellers of any services can mutually determine decisions. In case of Google, allocation of a team with the resources must be done perfectly that should not have any debate that can be misguided.

Google is for-profit organisation and it has mainly philanthropic approach in funding new companies and it makes a bond with novel technologies with investors. Moreover, Google Google’s lobby Congress makes legislation in favour of the social issues. Google’s corporate sustainability cannot be broken in such manner; however, it should make some policies to battle with the risks. Corporate responsibility is s high risk and Google knows that their Code of Conduct may not solve the ethical issues that might come up. In this respect, Google has to tell all the employees being alert in every choice they make. Organisations itself is a moral individual and it describes the moral agency to describe decision-making structure. It is related to the cause-events to happen and the organisation can act intentionally. In order to stop such inconvenience in future, Google needs to modify the Code of Conducts along with the policy. Google’s accounts are free; however, it can apply more security interface within this. Google can join in any trade association with integrating corporate culture.

References

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Kaye, L. 2017. Google Posts Sustainability Update, Yet Lacks Frankness on Russia Ads. Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit. Available at: https://www.triplepundit.com/2017/10/google-posts-sustainability-update-yet-lacks-frankness-russia-ads/ [Accessed on 14 Oct. 2017].

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