Google Threatened Reviewers to Give Pixel 9 Special Treatment

Google’s approach to promoting its Pixel 9 has come under controversy. The company’s exclusive Team Pixel program, which provides early access to Pixel devices for select influencers, has implemented stringent new guidelines that have raised ethical concerns.

The program’s updated terms prohibit reviewers and tech influencers from featuring Pixel products alongside competitors’ devices. More alarmingly, influencers who prefer rival phones risk expulsion from the program.

This has placed aspiring tech reviewers in a difficult position, forcing them to choose between maintaining their coveted access to pre-release products and preserving their editorial integrity. While complex relationships between companies and influencers have long characterized the tech review landscape, Google’s latest tactics with the Pixel 9 appear to have crossed an ethical boundary.

The news comes from various influencers that posted about Google’s Team Pixel Clause on social media. The document, which has since been taken offline, contained an agreement that participants were explicitly “expected to feature the Google Pixel device in place of any competitor mobile devices.”

Even more troubling was the stipulation that “if it appears other brands are being preferred over the Pixel, we will need to cease the relationship between the brand and the creator.”

Here is what Google’s communications manager Kayla Geier had to say about the situation:

The goal of #TeamPixel is to get Pixel devices into the hands of content creators, not press and tech reviewers. We missed the mark with this new language that appeared in the #TeamPixel form yesterday, and it has been removed.

The revelation of Google’s Team Pixel agreement terms has sparked widespread confusion and concern in the tech community. Many online commentators mistakenly assumed these stringent requirements applied universally to all product reviewers. However, it’s crucial to clarify that this is not the case.

Google maintains a separate, official Pixel review program for established publications, which operates under different guidelines. This official program does not impose the controversial stipulations in the Team Pixel influencer agreement.