‘Merely Fixed A Bug’: Google Disputes Claim That It Purposely Slowed Down YouTube Streaming On Microsoft Edge

Google has denied a claim made by a former Microsoft intern, Joshua Bakita, that it modified a YouTube code to break Microsoft’s Edge browser, thus slowing it down while users streamed videos on internet search giant’s video sharing service, reports The Tribune.

Edge is Microsoft’s new internet browser that replaced Internet Explorer as the default web browser in Windows 10 desktop and mobile variants as well as Xbox One devices.

Google disputed the claims made by Bakita, a former software engineering intern at Microsoft, that the company added a “hidden empty div over YouTube videos”, slowing down Youtube streaming on Microsoft Edge. According to Google, it merely fixed a bug in YouTube.

“YouTube does not add code designed to defeat optimisations in other browsers, and works quickly to fix bugs when they are discovered,” a YouTube spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Microsoft has reportedly not commented on the claims made by Bakita. “Google has been a helpful partner, and we look forward to the journey as we work on the future of Microsoft Edge,” Tribune quoted Microsoft.

Bakita, earlier in a post on Hacker News, had claimed that Google added code to break compatibility of Youtube in Edge purposely. As per the report, a similar claim had been made by a Mozilla Firefox programme manager earlier.