Google has faced allegations of suppressing an Indian news website, Janta Ka Reporter, for criticizing billionaire Mukesh Ambani, whom the search engine had invested in. Janta Ka Reporter claims that its stories about Ambani, a prominent figure in Asia’s wealthiest individuals and owner of Stoke Park country club in the UK, disappeared from significant sections of Google’s website after the company invested $4.5 billion in Ambani’s businesses. Furthermore, the news publisher stated that its articles were demoted in Google’s search rankings.
Google defended its actions by stating that Janta Ka Reporter’s rankings were adjusted due to the presence of “unnatural” links on its website that were artificially boosting its position in search results. However, even after the publisher fixed the issue, their rankings remained unchanged, and Google did not respond to their requests for reconsideration.
In a Twitter statement, Janta Ka Reporter expressed frustration, revealing that they had submitted multiple reconsideration requests without receiving any response from Google. The publisher also highlighted the pressure they faced from Reliance’s PR team to remove stories about Ambani’s children back in February 2020.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s search liaison, addressed the allegations on Twitter, assuring Janta Ka Reporter that the manual action taken was not a result of their journalism but solely due to unnatural links. He clarified that the action was issued in mid-December 2020 and had no impact on the website’s ranking.
It is worth noting that in July 2020, Google announced its acquisition of a 7.7% stake in Reliance Jio Platforms, a telecommunications subsidiary of Reliance Industries, which is controlled by Mukesh Ambani. Reliance Jio Platforms also secured a $5.7 billion investment from Facebook. Google’s investment valued Reliance Jio Platforms at $58 billion.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
