While Facebook has gotten all the attention as people debate the Fake News problem and how to fix it, Google fakes an equal dilemma. After all, it’s Google’s search engine that digs up these fake articles and Google’s ad network that makes running fake news profitable in the first place. The question has become what Google will do about it, and surprisingly, it’s started using the internet’s version of a nuclear weapon against Russian propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik News.

While officially RT and Sputnik are independent news organizations that happen to be funded by the Russian government, it’s widely accepted that both promote Russian propaganda and have been at the center of the fake news problem from the beginning. They’ve even begun turning on other outlets implicated in the scandal to distance themselves from the issue. But, for Google, it was too little, too late. According to The Wrap, Google has essentially booted them from the internet:

The search monolith is going to start “deranking” sites Russia Today and Sputnik — Kremlin-funded media outlets that have come under fire in the wake of the 2016 U.S. election — company Chairman Eric Schmidt said at the Halifax International Security Forum on Tuesday. The move would bump the outlets down on Google’s search results, making it tougher for the sites to grab eyeballs. Schmidt added Google’s decision isn’t a matter of free speech versus censorship.

For those who don’t work with Google a lot, a page’s “rank” essentially determines how visible it is. The higher your rank on a search term, the more likely your links are to turn up. It’s such a ruthless business that the first result gets one third of all visits. RT and Sputnik will still turn up, but by being effectively buried, they’ll be much harder to find if they’re not actively sought out by readers.

This does raise a few questions, even if it is a state-backed propaganda arm for a state power hostile towards the country Google was founded in and operates out of. That a private corporation is so powerful all governments can do about its actions is sputter and complain will give even those who cheer this action pause. But the reality of the matter is Google that is privately run and isn’t obligated to give anything a page rank if it doesn’t want to, and Silicon Valley’s attempts to insist it’s just a “neutral platform” for ideas are becoming increasingly strained. It appears Google is starting to make choices, and it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds.

(via The Wrap)