INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Google is promoting its top lawyer, Kent Walker, into a global policy position, CNBC reports
Walker, Google SVP and general counsel, has already been a public voice in the company recent privacy tangles, but will move into a formal
role as senior vice president of global affairs, overseeing Google policy, trust and safety, corporate philanthropy and legal teams.
Last
year, Walker joined Richard Salgado, Google Director, Law Enforcement and Information Security, to head to Capitol Hill for the first round
of reckoning on big tech failure to mitigate political disinformation campaigns during the 2016 United States presidential election.
Since
then, Walker has commented publicly on Google policies around political ad transparency and extremist content on YouTube, among other policy
issues facing the company
With social platforms at an ethical crossroads globally and tech chafing at its newly forced compliance with international privacy laws, any
public-facing global policy role will be very much in the spotlight in 2018 and beyond.
Google hired Walker away from eBay in 2006, where he
served as the company deputy general counsel
Prior to his time at eBay (and AOL, prior to that), Walker was an assistant United States attorney with the Department of Justice.
