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John,

Google and its subsidiary YouTube are looking to move into Web3—a buzzword
for the next evolution of the internet.^1 However, they have yet to
address the racial bias issues in their current services and technology.
In response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud
Arbery, Google issued a statement in support of Black lives, and YouTube
pledged millions of dollars to support Black creators.^2,3 Their actions
since then paint a different story. 

* Google has blocked companies from using racial justice terms like
“Black Lives Matter” to place advertisements on related video
content—a policy that blocks financial sustainability for Black
creators and the creators who cover the movement.^4 
* At the same time, Google actively allowed advertisers to search and
place their content on tens of millions of videos tagged with white
nationalist terms like “White Power” and “White Lives Matter.”^5 
* Despite kicking Steve Bannon, indicted former adviser to Donald Trump,
off YouTube, Google did not remove Bannon's War Room website—which
spreads Trump propaganda—from its network. Therefore, Bannon can still
make money from the other Google Ads services on his website.^6

Problems like these can begin to change by conducting an independent
racial equity audit. Such an investigation would provide Google with
specific areas to eliminate discrimination in its products and workplaces.

[ [link removed] ]TELL GOOGLE A RACIAL EQUITY AUDIT IS LONG OVERDUE

A racial equity audit is necessary for a Big Tech corporation like Google,
which blurs the line between advertiser and search engine. Those who use
Google for its advertising services are looking for visibility and
engagement with their ads; those who use Google as a search engine may
assume the results for their search are objective. Google’s algorithms
encode racial biases in its search results and shape our online presence
without our control, leading to real-world harm. Google’s technology does
not center racial justice; that’s clear from their history of returning
hypersexualized and pornographic results and advertisements for a Google
Images search for “Black girls” and Google Photos tagging Black people as
gorillas on its platform.^7,8 

Google’s refusal to listen to the needs of Black people online leads to
violence. We cannot forget the lives of the nine Black churchgoers in
Charleston, South Carolina who were murdered in 2015 by a white
supremacist, Dylann Roof. Roof’s white supremacist beliefs were shaped by
Google. Google suggested white supremacist content in Roof’s results for
his search on “black on white crime” after learning about Trayvon Martin’s
murder, leading Roof down a rabbit hole of white supremacy until he
eventually murdered nine Black people.^9 Google must conduct a racial
equity audit to truly begin to combat the racist violence inspired by its
technology.

A better future is possible—a future that uplifts Black people. Because of
support from Color Of Change members like you, John, we have
forced Facebook to undergo a civil rights audit, disclose the results, and
publish their progress. We can do that with Google, too. When we hold tech
companies accountable for their products and practices that harm Black
people, we will have real opportunities to thrive. 

[ [link removed] ]Join us in calling on Google to go #BeyondTheStatement

Until justice is real, 
—The Color Of Change Team

References: 

 1. Kali Hays, “Google and YouTube are delving into Web3 with new experts
in NFTs, crypto and blockchain technology,” Business Insider, February
15, 2022,
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 2. “Standing with the Black Community,” Sundair Pichai, Blog.Google.com,
June 3, 2020,
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 3. “Susan Wojcicki: My mid-year update to the YouTube community,” Susan
Wojcicki, Blog.YouTube.com, June 11, 2020, 
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 4. Leon Yin and Aaron Sankin, “Google blocks advertisers from targeting
Black Lives Matter YouTube videos,” The Markup, April 9, 2021,
[ [link removed] ][link removed]
 5. Ibid.
 6. Craig Silverman and Isaac Arnsdorf, “How Steve Bannon Has Exploited
Google Ads to Monetize Extremism,” ProPublica, November 29, 2021,
[ [link removed] ][link removed]
 7. Safiya Umoja Noble, “The Enduring Anti-Black Racism of Google Search,”
OneZero, July 14, 2020,
[ [link removed] ][link removed]
 8. James Vincent, “Google ‘fixed’ its racist algorithm by removing
gorillas from its image-labeling tech,” The Verge, January 12, 2018, 
[ [link removed] ][link removed]
 9. Rebecca Hersher, “What happened when Dylann Roof asked Google for
information about race?” NPR, January 10, 2017,
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