Google is running a ‘test’ that will release results from EU-based news publishers. The company says the time-limited trial will affect only a small portion of users in nine EU countries and will help “assess how the results for EU news publishers impact the search experience for our users and traffic to publishers.” But given the fragile state of the news media and the history of the company threatening enlisting his services in the face of news regulations — it’s tempting to see him as the equivalent of a mob boss running a “little test” to see how the corner laundromat works without protection.
Google describes experience (through The Verge) as a “small, time-limited trial” to exclude EU results from search, Google News and personalized data Discover the feed. This will affect only one percent of users in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. Those users will still see results from other websites, including non-EU news outlets.
The company says news results will return to normal after the test is over. (It did not list a specific time frame.) Google emphasizes that the experiment will not affect its publisher payments. European Copyright Directive (EUCD)which is under the company signed deals With over 4,000 EU publishers.
Google has a history of using the potential pushback of visibility as a bargaining chip in similar situations. In some cases, the tactic helped him to compromise.
Google last year removed news links from Canada In response to Bill C-18 (The Online News Act), it required tech companies to negotiate compensation with online publishers for related content. After months of negotiations, Google said it had addressed Canada’s concerns and allowed it to go free. Canada said last month that it had given Google one with the company agrees paying news organizations $100 million annually.
In April of this year, Google briefly Links to California news outlets have been removed In response, the proposed California Journalism Protection Act (CJPA) would require Google to pay news publishers in exchange for continued links to their websites. Although the fate of the bill is still up in the air, Google made a deal with state lawmakers this summer, it committed tens of millions of dollars to a foundation that supports local news.
Company in 2021 threatened to remove the entire search engine from Australia in response to a then-proposed law that would have required tech companies to share royalties with news publishers. The prime minister of the country at that time stood firm. “Let me be clear. Australia makes our rules for what you can do in Australia,” Scott Morrison said. After the bill is passed and goes into effect, Google hit deals with Australian media companies to license content.
Google said it hoped the data analysis tools it made available to publishers would help them use the EU test to “understand traffic patterns”.
