Google told employees to delete messages to avoid antitrust suits: Report

New York: Internet giant Google reportedly used strategies, after it faced antitrust scrutiny over an advertising deal with its rival Yahoo 15 years ago, to avoid legal scrutiny by directing employees to destroy their internal text messages, according to The New York Times.

The tech giant has asked employees to refraining from using certain words in internal communication which could later play into the hands of government regulators or competitors serving as legal evidence.

Instructing them to refrain from speculation and sarcasm, Google wanted to them ‘think twice’ before writing about ‘hot topics’ and they should not comment before having all the facts.

Government regulations in the US made it mandate for the companies to preserve their documents anticipating legal action.

Google, however, reportedly tweaked its technology for internal communication to make deletion default.

An internal memo in 2011 directed its employees to avoid using ‘metaphors involving wars or sports, winning or losing’, alongside rejecting references to topics such as ‘markets’ ‘market share’ or ‘dominance’.

Employees were asked not to use phrases like ‘putting products in the hands of new customers’, claiming that regulators might interpret the term to accuse the company of denying consumers a ‘choice’.

Another strategy that the company adopted was encouraging employees to mark ‘attorney-client privileged’ on documents.

In addition they were instructed to add the company's lawyer to the list of recipients, even if an internal communication did not involve legal matters.

Meanwhile Google reportedly stated that the company ‘for years responded to inquiries and litigation’, adding that it took obligations to preserve and produce relevant documents.