Report September 2026

Submitted

Executive summary

Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. To deliver on this mission, and as technology evolves, helping users find useful, relevant and high-quality information across our services is of utmost importance.

Since Google was founded, Google’s product, policy, and content enforcement decisions have been guided by the following three principles:

We value openness and accessibility: We lean towards keeping content accessible by providing access to an open and diverse information ecosystem.
We respect user choice: If users search for content that is not illegal or prohibited by our policies, they should be able to find it.
We build for everyone: Our services are used around the world by users from different cultures, languages, and backgrounds, and at different stages in their lives. We take the diversity of our users into account in policy development and policy enforcement decisions.

With these principles in mind, Google has long invested in ranking systems and has teams around the world working to connect people with high-quality content; in developing and enforcing rules that prohibit harmful behaviours and content on Google services; and in innovative ways to provide context to users when they might need it most.

How companies like Google address information quality concerns has an impact on society and on the trust users place in our services. We are cognisant that these are complex issues, affecting all of society, which no single actor is in a position to fully tackle on their own. That is why we have welcomed the multi-stakeholder approach put forward by the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation.

Alongside our participation in the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation, we continue to work closely with regulators to ensure that our services appropriately comply with the EU Digital Services Act (EU DSA), in full respect of EU fundamental rights such as freedom of expression.

The work of supporting a healthy information ecosystem is never finished and we remain committed to it. This is in our interest and the interest of our users.

This report includes metrics and narrative detail for Google Search, YouTube, and Google Advertising users in the European Union (EU), and covers the period from 1 January 2026 to 30 June 2026.

Updates to highlight in this report include (but are not limited to):

2026 Elections across EU Member States: During the reporting period, voters cast their ballots in Slovenia, Hungary, Denmark, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta. Google supported these democratic processes by surfacing high-quality information to voters, safeguarding its platforms from abuse, and equipping campaigns with best-in-class security tools and training. In addition, Google put in place a number of policies and other measures that helped people navigate political content that was AI-generated, content labels on YouTube, and digital watermarking tools.
Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and provenance transparency: In H1 2026, we announced new and expanded AI provenance tools to help increase content transparency, including Content Credentials verification across products. Content Credentials (C2PA) verification shows users whether the origin of content was AI or a camera, and if it’s been edited with generative AI tools. To give more access to this information, we have begun to expand both Content Credentials and SynthID verification beyond Gemini by integrating into our Search and Chrome products. For example, Google Lens has integrated SynthID verification.
When we launched SynthID in 2023— a state-of-the-art tool that embeds imperceptible watermarks and enables the identification of AI-generated content — our aim was to provide a suite of novel technical solutions to help minimise misinformation and misattribution.
- SynthID not only preserves the content’s quality, it acts as a robust watermark that remains detectable even when the content is shared or undergoes a range of transformations. While originally focused on AI-generated imagery only, we have since expanded SynthID to include AI-generated text, audio and video content, including content generated by our Gemini, Imagen, Lyria and Veo models. Since launch, over 100 billion images and videos and 60,000 years of audio assets have been watermarked with SynthID.
- SynthID Detector, a verification portal to identify AI-generated content made with Google AI, was introduced in May 2025. The portal, which is accessible to early testers, provides detection capabilities across different modalities in one place, and provides essential transparency in the rapidly evolving landscape of generative media. Its eventual goal is to provide cross-verification capabilities within our ecosystem of SynthID partners. In November 2025, detection capabilities for Google AI-generated content were integrated natively into the Gemini app, allowing millions of people to quickly verify content provenance. In May 2026, we expanded this verification capability to Search features like Google Lens and announced that the integration was coming soon to Chrome.
- How SynthID Detector & verification works: When a user uploads an image, audio track, or video via Google's AI tools or SynthID-integrated partner tools (see next bullet), our verification systems will scan the media for a SynthID watermark. If a watermark is detected, we will highlight specific portions of the content most likely to be watermarked. For audio, we pinpoint specific segments where a SynthID watermark is detected, and for images, we indicate areas where a watermark is most likely.
In addition to our continued work and investment in new tools, we are also committed to working with the greater ecosystem and across the industry to help others benefit from and improve on the advances we are making. As such, we have open-sourced SynthID text watermarking through our updated Responsible Generative AI Toolkit and several of our industry partners, including Nvidia, OpenAI and ElevenLabs, have integrated SynthID into their tools to embed watermarks in their own AI-generated content.
Underpinning our advancements in AI, as a member of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), we collaborated with Adobe, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, startups, and many others to build and implement the newest version of the coalition’s technical standard, Content Credentials (v2.4, launched in April 2026). This version expands native support for additional digital media container types, updates assertion structures for improved lineage tracking, and adds security guidance for handling sensitive metadata.

Google has been working on AI for over a decade to solve society’s biggest challenges and also power the Google services people use every day. The progress in large-scale AI models (including generative AI) has sparked additional discussion about the social impacts of AI and raised concerns on topics such as disinformation. Google is committed to developing technology responsibly and first published AI Principles in 2018 to guide our work. Google’s robust internal governance focuses on responsibility throughout the AI development lifecycle, covering model development, application deployment, and post-launch monitoring. We publish an annual Responsible AI Progress Report with the latest published in February 2026. Through our philanthropic arm, Google.org, we have supported organisations that are using AI to tackle important societal issues. Google Search has published guidance for developers on AI-generated content, outlining its approach to maintaining a high standard of information quality and the overall helpfulness of content on Search.

To help enhance information quality across its services, Google continuously works to integrate new innovations in watermarking, metadata, and other techniques into its latest generative models. Google has also joined other leading AI companies to jointly commit to advancing responsible practices in the development of artificial intelligence, which will support efforts by the G7, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and national governments. Going forward, we will continue to report and expand upon Google-developed AI tools and are committed to advancing bold and responsible AI to maximise AI’s benefits and minimise its risks.

Lastly, the contents of this report should be read with the following context in mind:

This report discusses the key approaches across the following Google services when it comes to addressing disinformation: Google Search, YouTube, and Google Advertising.
For chapters of the Code that involve the same actions across all three services (e.g. participation in the Permanent Task-force or in development of the Transparency Centre), we respond as 'Google, on behalf of related services'.
This report follows the structure and template laid out by the Code’s Permanent Task-force, organised around Commitments and Chapters of the Code.
Unless otherwise specified, metrics provided cover activities and actions during the period from 1 January 2026 to 30 June 2026.
The data provided in this report is subject to a range of factors, including product changes and user settings, and so is expected to fluctuate over the time of the reporting period. As Google continues to evolve its approach, in part to better address user and regulatory needs, the data reported here could vary substantially over time.
We are continuously working to improve the safety and reliability of our services. We are not always in a position to pre-announce specific launch dates, details or timelines for upcoming improvements, and therefore may reply 'no' when asked whether we can disclose future plans for Code implementation measures in the coming reporting period. This 'no' should be understood in the context that we are constantly working to improve safety and reliability and may in fact launch relevant changes without the ability to pre-announce.
This report is filed concurrently with two ‘crisis reports’ about our response to the Israel-Gaza conflict and to the war in Ukraine. Additionally, an annex on Google’s response to the recent elections in Slovenia, Hungary, Denmark, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta is included in this report.
The term ‘disinformation’ in this report refers to the definition included in the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation.

Google looks forward to continuing to work together with other stakeholders in the EU to address challenges related to disinformation.

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Commitment 19

Relevant Signatories using recommender systems commit to make them transparent to the recipients regarding the main criteria and parameters used for prioritising or deprioritising information, and provide options to users about recommender systems, and make available information on those options.

We signed up to the following measures of this commitment

Measure 19.1 Measure 19.2

In line with this commitment, did you deploy new implementation measures (e.g. changes to your terms of service, new tools, new policies, etc)?

If yes, list these implementation measures here

N/A

Do you plan to put further implementation measures in place in the next 6 months to substantially improve the maturity of the implementation of this commitment?

If yes, which further implementation measures do you plan to put in place in the next 6 months?

N/A

Measure 19.1

Relevant Signatories will make available to their users, including through the Transparency Centre and in their terms and conditions, in a clear, accessible and easily comprehensible manner, information outlining the main parameters their recommender systems employ.

QRE 19.1.1

Relevant Signatories will provide details of the policies and measures put in place to implement the above-mentioned measures accessible to EU users, especially by publishing information outlining the main parameters their recommender systems employ in this regard. This information should also be included in the Transparency Centre.

Note: The below QRE response has been reproduced (in some instances truncated in order to meet the suggested character limit) from the previous report as there is no new information to share now.

Google Search’s ranking systems sort through hundreds of billions of web pages and other content in the Search index to present the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second. Main parameters that help determine which results are returned for a user’s query include:

Meaning of user’s query: To return relevant results, Google Search first needs to establish the intent behind a user’s query. Google Search builds language models to decipher how the words that a user enters into the search box match up to the most useful content available.
Relevance of content: Next, Google Search systems analyse the content to assess whether it contains information that might be relevant to what the user is looking for. The most basic signal that information is relevant is when content contains the same keywords as the user’s search query.
Quality of content: Google Search systems prioritise content that seems most helpful by identifying signals that can help determine which content demonstrates expertise, high-quality, and trustworthiness. For example, one of several factors that Google Search uses to help determine this is by understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content. Aggregated feedback from the Google Search quality evaluation process is used to further refine how Google Search systems discern the quality of information.
Usability: Google Search systems also consider the usability of content. When all things are relatively equal, content that people will find more accessible may perform better.
Context and settings: Information such as user location, past Google Search history, and Search settings all help Google Search ensure user results are what is most useful and relevant at that moment. Google Search uses the user’s country and location to deliver content relevant to their area. For instance, if a user in Chicago searches ‘football’, Google Search will likely show the user results about American football and the Chicago Bears first. Whereas if the user searches ‘football’ in London, Google will show results about soccer and the Premier League. Google Search settings are also an important indicator of which results a user is likely to find useful, such as if they set a preferred language or opted in to SafeSearch (a tool that helps filter out explicit results). Depending on a user’s settings, Google Search also includes features that personalize results according to their Google account activity. The user can control what Google activity is used to improve their experience, including adjusting what data is saved to their Google account at myaccount.google.com. To disable Google Search personalisation based on activity in a user’s account, the user can turn off personal results in Search. Users can also prevent activity being stored to the user’s account or delete particular history items in Web & App Activity. Google Search systems are designed to match a user’s interests, but they are not designed to infer sensitive characteristics like race, religion or political party.

The How Search Works website explains the ins and outs of Google Search. The following links provide additional information about helping people and businesses learn how Search works, how results are automatically generated, and how Search results are improved through testing.