Google informs Russia’s media watchdog it will not change re-ranking websites algorithm

Google has responded to a request from Russia’s media watchdog, the Federal Service for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, to clarify its plans to change the algorithm for the delivery of news content for Russia’s RT television channel and Sputnik news agency, the watchdog reported on its website.

“In response to your letter, we’d like to inform you that by speaking about ranking of web-sources, including websites of Russia Today and Sputnik, Dr. Eric Schmidt was referring to Google’s ongoing efforts to improve search quality. We don’t change our algorithm to re-rank individual websites,” the statement said.