Faced With Possibly Paying For News, Google Removes Links To California News Sites For Some Users

SACRAMENTO, CA – Google began eliminating California news websites from certain people’s search results on Friday, a test that serves as a warning if the state Legislature passes legislation mandating the search engine to compensate media businesses for linking to their content.

Google disclosed the change in a blog post on Friday, describing it as a “short-term test for a small percentage of users… to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience.” The firm also announced that it would suspend further investments in the California news industry, including a cooperation project with news organizations and a product licensing program.

Faced With Possibly Paying For News, Google Removes Links To California News Sites For Some Users

“By assisting consumers in finding news content, we enable publishers of all sizes to build their audiences at no expense. “(This bill) would disrupt that model,” wrote Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s vice president for global news partnerships, in a blog post.

The California Legislature is debating legislation obliging tech behemoths such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft to pay media firms a share of advertising revenue for linking to their material. A panel of three judges will determine the amount the corporations must pay through an arbitration process.

The law tries to halt the rapid loss of journalism employment as traditional media organizations struggle to profit in the digital age. According to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, more than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the United States since 2005. According to the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, more than 100 news organizations have closed in California over the last decade.

“This is a bill about basic fairness — it’s about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose,” Wicks said. “We are committed to continuing negotiations with Google and all other stakeholders to secure a brighter future for California journalists and ensure that the lights of democracy stay on.”

Despite significant resistance and lobbying attempts from major technology corporations, the state Assembly enacted the bill last year with bipartisan backing. It would need to be passed by the California Senate later this year to become law.

Supporters claimed that the measure would help level the playing field between news publishers and giant digital platforms and provide a “lifeline” to local news organizations that rely largely on Google’s search engine to spread their material in the digital age. While Google’s search engine has become the center of a digital advertising empire worth more than $200 billion annually, news publishers’ advertising revenues have fallen dramatically in recent decades.

Opponents, including Google, Meta, and several independent newsrooms, refer to the measure as a “link tax” that will disproportionately benefit out-of-state newspaper chains and hedge funds while further decimating local news organizations. Richard Gingras, Google’s vice president of news, also told state lawmakers in a December hearing that the tech giant has made significant contributions to local journalism, citing financial grants and training to nearly 1,000 local publications in 2023, among other initiatives.

Faced With Possibly Paying For News, Google Removes Links To California News Sites For Some Users

Gingras described Google’s search engine as “the largest newsstand on Earth,” connecting people to news websites more than 24 billion times every month. Google’s search engine controls an estimated 90% of the market.

“This traffic, in turn, helps publishers make money by showing ads or attracting new subscribers,” he added, adding that each Google link click is projected to cost a news website 5 cents to 7 cents.

Google’s decision to temporarily delete links to news websites is not a novel strategy for digital behemoths when opposing unpopular legislation. When Canada and Australia established similar rules to foster journalism, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, retaliated by censoring Canadian publishers’ content on its Canadian websites. Last year, the business issued identical threats to members of the United States Congress and California lawmakers. Google has threatened to do the same in Canada. However, in November, Google agreed to pay the news business 100 million Canadian dollars ($74 million US dollars).

News publishers would suffer and may lay off more journalists if Google fully removed content from its search results, but analysts say Google would also suffer financially without news content.

“Google would be damaging itself enormously if it decided to stop using newspaper content,” Brandon Kressin, an antitrust attorney representing News Media Alliance and other news publishers, told senators during a December session. “They would be cutting off their nose to spite their own face.”

The political debate over Google’s main search engine, which has the potential to restrict access to diverse news sources, is taking place against the backdrop of judicial proceedings that could result in verdicts that undermine the company’s online empire.

Faced With Possibly Paying For News, Google Removes Links To California News Sites For Some Users

After presenting evidence to support its allegations that Google has used its power to stifle competition and innovation during the largest antitrust trial in a quarter century, the US Justice Department’s lawyers will present their closing arguments next month to a federal judge who is expected to rule on the case later this year.

Following another antitrust trial that concluded in December, a federal jury determined that Google had turned its app store for smartphones running Android software into an illegal monopoly that limited consumer choices while enriching the company through unfairly high in-app purchase commissions. A hearing on the modifications Google requires due to the ruling is also scheduled for next month.

California has enhanced local journalism through various efforts, including a $25 million multiyear state-funded program in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism that places 40 early-career journalists in local newsrooms each year. This year, lawmakers are also debating a plan to boost tax credits for local news organizations.

SOURCE – (AP)