Google on Friday removed California news websites from some people’s search results. This test acted as a threat should the state Legislature pass a law requiring the search giant to pay media companies for linking to their content.
Google says the move would affect only a small percentage of California users and is intended as a “test,” allowing the company to gauge “the impact of the legislation on our product experience.”
The California Journalism Preservation Act introduced in 2023 March which is still awaiting a hearing by the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, would require digital platforms like Google and Meta to pay a “journalism usage fee” to eligible news outlets when they use their content alongside digital ads.
Meta has still not returned CNN’s request for command.
While Google announced the move in a blog post on Friday, calling it a “short-term test for a small percentage of users to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience.” The company said it also would pause new investments in the California news industry, including the partnership initiative with news organizations and its product licensing program.
“By helping people find news stories, we help publishers of all sizes grow their audiences at no cost to them. (This bill) would up-end that model,” Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s vice president for global news partnerships, wrote in the blog post.
What this bill aims to do and how does it affects the big techs like Google ?
The California Legislature is considering a bill that would require tech giants like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to pay a certain percentage of advertising revenue to media companies for linking to their content. Through an arbitration process by a panel of three judges it would be decided that how much the companies would have to pay.
The bill aims to stop the loss of journalism jobs, which have been disappearing rapidly as legacy media companies have struggled to profit in the digital age.
More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the U.S. since 2005, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade, according to Democratic Assembly member Buffy Wicks, the bill’s author.
Wick says,” This is a bill about basic fairness – it’s about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose”. He further adds that they 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 stays on.
The state Assembly passed the bill last year with bipartisan support despite fierce opposition and lobbying efforts from big tech companies. The California Senate would have to pass it later this year for it to become law.
Supporters said the legislation would help level the playing field between news publishers and large digital platforms and provide a “lifeline” to local news organizations, which rely heavily on Google’s search engine to distribute its content in the digital era. While Google’s search engine has become the hub of a digital advertisement empire that generates more than $200 billion annually, news publishers saw their advertising revenues nosedive significantly in the last few decades.
But opponents, including Google, Meta and some independent newsrooms, call the legislation a “link tax” that would primarily benefit out-of-state newspaper chains and hedge funds and further decimate local news organizations. Richard Gingras, Google’s vice president of news, also told state lawmakers, in a hearing last December, that Google already made significant contributions to support local journalism, pointing to the tech giant’s financial grants and training to nearly 1,000 local publications in 2023, among other programs.
“This traffic in turn helps publishers make money by showing ads or attracting new subscribers,” Gingras said, adding that it’s estimated that each click on a link from Google is worth 5 cents to 7 cents to a news website.
Is Google’s move to remove links to news website a new tactic?
Google’s decision to temporarily remove links to news websites is not a new tactic for tech giants to use when pushing back on unwanted legislation. When Canada and Australia passed similar laws to promote journalism, Meta responded by blocking content from Canadian publishers on its sites in Canada. The company made similar threats to U.S. Congress and California lawmakers last year. Google had threatened to do the same in Canada. But in November, it agreed to pay 100 million Canadian dollars ($74 million U.S. dollars) to the news industry.
News publishers would suffer and could lay off more journalists if it completely blocks content from its search, but experts say it also would take a financial hit without news content.
