Google releases civil rights review, caving to years of pressure

Google released an audit Friday examining how its services and policies impact civil rights and racial equity, following years of pressure from advocates and Democratic lawmakers for such a review.

The disclosure came hours after The Washington Post revealed that the tech giant had hired a prominent law firm to undertake it. The company uploaded the audit without fanfare in an update to the bottom of the human rights page on its website.

The assessment, the existence of which had not been previously reported, has been months in the making and details how the company’s diversity and inclusion policies and approach to content moderation affect marginalized communities, including at its subsidiary YouTube. The move follows rivals such as Facebook and Airbnb, which conducted audits in 2020 and 2016, respectively, and Apple, which last year pledged to do a racial equity audit after facing pressure from its shareholders.