Google Search and Maps are providing information to voters in the United States around Election Day.
As Election Day nears, here’s an update on our latest initiatives, tools and safeguards, building on our existing efforts in the U.S.
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An overview of how we are supporting and protecting elections across our products and our ongoing commitment to this work.
In the last few months, voters have participated in elections around the world, including recently in France, Kenya, Colombia, Australia and primaries across the U.S. Our products and services have helped people find election information and protect the accounts of campaigns and election officials. We are continuing these efforts in Brazil, the U.S. general election and other elections globally.
Today, we’re sharing an update on our ongoing work related to the U.S. midterms. Our work is centered around connecting voters to the latest election information, helping campaigns and people working on elections improve their cybersecurity and protecting our users and platforms from abuse.
In the lead-up to elections, voters search for useful and relevant information to help them navigate the electoral process. That’s why we build features that show data from nonpartisan organizations to make it easier for people to get helpful election information.
As we’ve done for many previous elections, we’re rolling out features on Google Search to connect voters with accurate information about voter registration and how to vote. In the coming weeks, when people search for “how to vote'' in both English and Spanish they’ll find election information panels sourced from Democracy Works, a nonpartisan and nonprofit data provider, which works directly with state election administrators to aggregate information about how they can vote in their state, along with key dates and deadlines, and guidance for options like voting early, in-person or by mail. The information panels will also link to state government official websites, which provide more information. And as with previous U.S. elections, we’re working with The Associated Press to present authoritative election results on Google.
We’re also making it easier to find authoritative news coverage on local elections from a range of sources. In addition to helping people find election news from their own communities, we're launching a new feature that will help readers discover local and regional news from different states so they can better understand the election coverage of races they most care about. The feature will be launched in the coming weeks.
An example of how our new feature will show local and regional news from different states. Depending on the amount of coverage, readers may see a carousel or list of articles.
On YouTube, our systems are prominently recommending content from authoritative news sources, while limiting the spread of harmful election misinformation. We’ll also be showing relevant election information panels at the top of YouTube search results and underneath videos about the midterms to provide people with additional context about elections. Learn more about how YouTube is supporting the U.S. midterms here.
Every election comes with increased cybersecurity risks. In fact, a recent survey shows that more than 41% of people working in politics and journalism had their digital accounts hacked or accessed without their permission in 2021. We understand this reality and are offering these high-risk users best-in-class security tools and resources.
To train and protect the security of people working on elections, we’ve been partnering with organizations like Defending Digital Campaigns, which has provided free security keys to over 300 national committees, state parties and political campaigns in all 50 states. To ensure the strongest account and site-level protections, we offer our free Advanced Protection Program and free Project Shield service to safeguard against digital attacks. Through our Campaign Security Project, we’ve teamed up with organizations across the political spectrum to train over 4,000 campaign and election officials on security best practices, including products and tools they can use to stay safe online.
Additionally, the Google News Initiative has continued to support a number of election-related trainings for journalists and newsrooms on identifying and combating misinformation. This year, in a partnership with the National Association of Black Journalists, we are helping to train over 700 journalists from publications across the country by the end of 2022. And we're working with Poynter to provide additional tools and resources for hundreds of Spanish-speaking reporters and other news outlets as they prepare to cover the midterms.
Preventing abuse on our platforms — such as account hijackings, phishing attempts or orchestrated disinformation campaigns — is always a top priority, especially during sensitive times like elections. Our Trust and Safety teams and Threat Analysis Group are working around the clock to monitor and stop these kinds of digital threats, and we’ve continued to make significant investments in our global operations to ensure our products remain safe and secure.
We also have longstanding policies that prohibit election-related abuse on our platforms. This continues to include policies to combat the spread of election misinformation and demonstrably false claims that could significantly undermine participation or trust in the electoral process, such as false information about polling locations, means of voting, candidate eligibility or election results. As always, we will continue to apply these policies in a neutral and apolitical way.
When it comes to election advertising, we want to make sure voters have confidence in the ads content they may see on our platforms. That's why we require all advertisers to complete averification process and enforce strict ads policies, such as limiting the way advertisers can target election ads. We've also made significant investments in enhancing transparency around election advertising. In fact, earlier this year we updated our Political Ads Transparency Report, creating a new user interface and adding new tools for accessing and filtering information about targeting, location and formats for specific election ads and advertisers. The new report also includes a more granular breakdown of advertiser data — giving users and researchers greater insight into ad spending and impressions based on the latest Congressional redistricting information. And globally, we’re expanding our election ads verification policies and transparency tools to more countries, including Argentina and Brazil.
We’re committed to helping people navigate the electoral process around the world, and we will continue to share updates about our ongoing work.
In 2022, voters will be heading to the polls in many countries around the world. We are committed to helping them find the latest election information on our services, equipping campaigns and election workers with the best-in-class security tools, and protecting our platforms from abuse.
This work builds on our longstanding support of elections across the globe, including most recently in Japan, Germany, Canada, and South Korea. And we are continuing these efforts in Australia, Brazil, France, the Philippines, and elsewhere to help people navigate the democratic process.
Today, we are providing an update on our work to support the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.
Whether you’re registering to vote for the first time, looking for your local polling place, or learning how to vote absentee, we make reliable information easily available with helpful product features that show data from trusted, nonpartisan organizations.
People working on campaigns and elections are higher targets for cybersecurity threats. In a recent study we commissioned with YouGov, 85% of high-risk professionals working in politics and journalism in the U.S. say they need stronger cybersecurity protections, while 83% feel cyber threats against their professions have increased in the last two years alone. We understand these concerns and are working hard to help high-risk users, such as campaigns and election officials, enhance their security and educate them on how to use our products and services.
Over the years, we’ve introduced new policies, enhanced our enforcement systems, and continued to invest in our teams and operations to better secure our products and prevent abuse on our platforms.
We will continue to provide updates on our work to support the 2022 U.S. midterm elections and other elections around the world in the months ahead.
Editor’s Note: Today marks the second annual National 311 Day. We talked with the City of San José’s CTO to learn about how they worked with Google.org Fellows to connect residents to the information they needed.
National 311 Day is a day to remind communities nationwide to use 311, a resource to connect with their city’s non-emergency services. It’s an important tool that cities use to unburden 911 call-takers of non-emergency calls, allowing them to quickly respond to residents’ most urgent needs. It’s also a time to honor the hardworking call-takers, especially after the past year as they’ve worked tirelessly to connect millions of local residents to critical services during the COVID-19 pandemic. We like to say that 911 is for the burning building, and 311 is for the burning questions, like the latest information about COVID-19, who provides garbage and recycling services or how to report a water leak.
At the beginning of 2019 San José identified a clear problem: it was taking too long for first responders to answer 911 calls. The State of California requires that 95% of 911 calls be answered within 15 seconds, and San José fell short of this goal in 2017 and 2018. That’s when we reached out to Google for help and were selected for a Google.org Fellowship. Together, we worked with a team of pro bono full-time Google.org Fellows to reduce 911 and 311 response times, improve the customer service experience, make 311 more accessible to residents, and address the growing load on call centers with solutions like a machine learning-based virtual agent.
First, the Google.org Fellows talked to residents and analyzed call volumes to understand what was contributing to the issues. They shadowed over 60 hours of calls to identify the most impactful ways to improve the response time, how to educate residents about 311 services, and ways to make it accessible to the residents of San José. San José is also one the most diverse U.S. cities, with residents speaking more than 100 languages. This demanded a new approach to automating the intake of requests from a majority population whose first language is not English, so equitable access was also top of mind for the Google.org Fellows.
San José Mayor Sam Liccardo alongside other city officials and representatives from Google celebrating the inaugural National 311 Day last year. Photo credit: Jennifer Leahy Photography
At the end of the six month Fellowship, the City’s 311 system was more inclusive and efficient. This was especially helpful as COVID-19 began to affect our community, making fast and reliable emergency and non-emergency responses for our residents even more essential. Since then, we’ve continued to see improvements to our 311 services:
“The improvements the City has made came at the right moment, so that residents could get the critical information they needed in an unprecedented year," says Kent Walker, SVP of Global Affairs for Google. "I also want to thank the 311 call-takers—the “first” first responders who answer these requests every day.”
Thanks to the technical help from Google.org, we’ve been able to respond more quickly to residents and connect them to government services during this critical time. We’re beginning to work with other municipalities across the U.S. to share what we’ve learned in hopes of furthering more equitable citizen services far beyond our city limits.
