Google’s EMEA Boss to Leave Company after Decade in Post

The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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Google’s EMEA Boss to Leave Company after Decade in Post

The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake

The man charged with overseeing Google’s operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia has stepped down after a decade in post.
Matt Brittin first joined the tech giant as head of UK and Ireland operations in 2007, before rising through the ranks to become vice president of northern and central Europe, and then EMEA president in 2014.
Prior to his time at Google, Brittin spent several years working as a consultant for McKinsey & Co, as well as a stint as commercial director Trinity Mirror, later rebranded as Reach PLC, Reuters reported.
In a post announcing his departure on social media platform LinkedIn, Brittin praised colleagues whose AI advances this week won the Nobel prize for chemistry, and shared advice one of Google’s co-founders gave him when he arrived at the company.
“When I joined Google in January 2007, Larry Page advised me to ‘put the best people you can on important work, and get out of the way.’ It’s been the privilege of my life to try to honor this - working with brilliant teams to help build tech that makes the world better,” he wrote.
Brittin said he would continue running Google’s EMEA operations until a successor had been chosen.



Türkiye Blocks Instant Messaging Platform Discord

Street vendors sell corn and traditional Turkish backeray "Simit" as people pass by their stands in the Eminonu district of Istanbul on August 30, 2024. (AFP)
Street vendors sell corn and traditional Turkish backeray "Simit" as people pass by their stands in the Eminonu district of Istanbul on August 30, 2024. (AFP)
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Türkiye Blocks Instant Messaging Platform Discord

Street vendors sell corn and traditional Turkish backeray "Simit" as people pass by their stands in the Eminonu district of Istanbul on August 30, 2024. (AFP)
Street vendors sell corn and traditional Turkish backeray "Simit" as people pass by their stands in the Eminonu district of Istanbul on August 30, 2024. (AFP)

Türkiye has blocked access to instant messaging platform Discord following a court decision, the country's infotech regulator said on Wednesday.

Türkiye’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) published the access ban decision on its website.

Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said a court in the capital Ankara decided to remove access from Türkiye to San Francisco-based Discord due to sufficient suspicion that the crimes of "child sexual abuse and obscenity" have been committed.

"We are determined to protect our youth and children from the harmful publications of social media and the internet that constitute crimes. We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure," Tunc also said in a post on X.

The access ban decision comes after public outrage caused by the murder of two women, perpetrated by a 19-year-old man earlier this month.

Following the incident, content on social media showed some users of Discord were praising the killing which led to public outrage against certain communities on the platform.

On Tuesday, Russia's communications regulator blocked Discord for violating Russian law, after previously fining the company for failing to remove banned content, the TASS news agency reported.