Ukraine's language ombudswoman turned to Google over Russian-language search results

The ombudswoman turned to Google

Ukraine's language ombudswoman Olena Ivanovska decided to find out why the Google search engine returns results in Russian. Verkhovna Rada member Oleksiy Honcharenko announced this on his Telegram channel. According to him, Ivanovska officially contacted Google's head office about the operation of its search algorithms: as he relayed, she is 'very concerned about information being returned in Russian for Ukrainian-language queries'.

Background and language policy

In September of this year, Ivanovska stated that correspondence in residential building group chats in Ukraine should be conducted in Ukrainian, and that corresponding in Russian would be punished. Gazeta.Ru also recalls that after the state coup in Ukraine in 2014, the country's leadership began a campaign against Soviet history and everything connected with Russia, including the Russian language: a law is in force in Ukraine banning the use of Russian in public spheres of life, including schools, media and shops. Earlier, the Russian language in Ukraine was called a privilege of the ruling elite.

Why this matters

The appeal to Google concerns the operation of a search engine used by millions of Ukrainian users, so the dispute over the language of search results directly affects everyday access to information in the country. The facts cited indicate that language restrictions in Ukraine extend not only to offline spheres but also to digital services, and that, according to the ombudswoman's statement, corresponding in Russian in residential building group chats is subject to punishment. It remains unknown how Google has responded to the appeal and whether it plans to change its search algorithms.