Speeches by Darlington.

“Obviously, the Committee is very interested in the spread of both misinformation and incitement to violence and hatred, in the context of what we have seen increasingly in the UK, particularly during the summer. What changes have you made as a result of these examples to make sure that they do not happen again? That is…”

“Is misinformation one of those things that you evaluated against? For example, we saw in the news that the AI Overview asserted that the average IQ in Pakistan was 80, Kenya was 75.2, and Sierra Leone was 45.07. That is clearly racism and has absolutely been debunked by scientific research. That is clear misinformation…”

“I do not think that that quite answers the question I was asking. How, within AI Overviews, are you ensuring that the information is not harmful, not hateful, not inciting violence and not promoting harm?”

“Hi, Amanda. I want to go into Google’s new AI Overviews function, which sees Google moving from a search engine to actually generating content using AI. I think you have described yourself as an AI-first company. How do you ensure the accuracy of that content, and that that content meets not only your own content stand…”

“Right. You have an algorithm that onboards people. Is that algorithm that chooses and selects available for the public to see, for academic researchers to test and analyse, and can you share it with the Committee?”

“A final question just to understand how the community note process works. Is the list of your community note people who you have selected to become community—”

“Can you assure the Committee that this account will be removed?”

“In November, I posted a tweet about my petition to save my local post office. This was my reply from one person: “You are a traitor to the British people and you will swing oh so slowly on a gibbet.” I had to look up what a gibbet is. It is not a pleasant thing. It was reported as harmful and violent speech in violatio…”

“Right. How does one become a community note contributor? Are you paid in the role? Is it a human fact-checking role?”

“We will start with some blue-tick accounts during the riots: “Illegal immigrants moved into the Dragonfly Hotel, Peterborough,” with a video identifying exactly where they were and where protesters were to go. That was a blue-tick account. “The Embassy Hotel in Gateshead houses hundreds of illegal immigrants in hotel n…”

“They didn’t.”

“Let’s stick with some of the stuff that blue-tick accounts, with the algorithm, therefore boost. Let’s start with one we talked about earlier, Mr Andrew Tate’s blue-tick account—wanting to make sure many people see them: “Labour cover up rape because they are rapists.” Is that true?”

“Another blue-tick account: “Jess Phillips is a rape genocide apologist.” Is that true?”

“I am happy to pass these to you. They took me about 10 minutes to pull together; literally, that is how quick it was. Let’s talk to one that was reported and what action was actually taken, or not.”

“Do you think sharing videos of the Nazi salute on the platform is appropriate and makes it a safer platform?”

“The original poster does not have to agree to the community note.”

“I want a point of clarification on your community note system. It says that it involves two people who disagree agreeing to put a community note on. Given some of the posts that I read out earlier, particularly the ones that are inciting violence against women, calling for people to be gang-raped and others, is that co…”

“Two quick points of clarification for Mr Fernandez. First, you said that during points of high tension advertisers tend to pause. Did that happen post Southport? Did advertisers pause on X?”

“I am pretty sure that making statements of antisemitism—”

“Without being an expert lawyer—I imagine we have some—I do not think these statements in themselves comply with UK law.”