Google is conducting a “test” in which results from EU-based news publishers will be omitted. The company says the time-limited test will only affect a small portion of users in nine EU countries and “will help assess how results from EU news publishers impact the search experience for our users and publishers’ traffic.”
But given the delicate position of news media — and the company’s history of threatening to withdraw its services in the face of news-related regulations — it could be considered the equivalent of a mafia boss conducting a “small test” to see how the corner laundromat fares without security.
Google describes this experiment (via The Verge) as a “small, time-limited test” to omit EU results from Search, Google News, and the personalized Discover feed. It 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 publications.
The company says news results will reappear as usual after the test ends. (It didn’t give a specific timeline.) Google has stressed that the experiment will not affect payments it makes to publishers under the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), under which the company has struck deals with more than 4,000 EU publishers.
Google has a history of using the potential withdrawal of its visibility as a negotiating tool in similar situations. In some cases, the tactic has helped it win concessions.
Last year, Google pulled its news links from Canada in response to Bill C-18 (the Online News Act), which required tech companies to negotiate compensation with online publishers for linked content. After months of negotiations, Google said Canada had addressed its concerns and granted it an exemption. Canada said it granted Google an exemption last month, under which the company agreed to pay news organisations $100 million annually.
In April this year, Google briefly removed links to California news outlets in response to the proposed California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay news publishers in exchange for continuing to link to their websites. Although the fate of the bill is still uncertain, Google reached a deal with state lawmakers this summer, promising to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to a fund that supports local news.
In 2021, the company threatened to pull its entire search engine from Australia, as proposed legislation at the time required tech companies to share royalties with news publishers. The country’s then-prime minister stood firm. “Let me be clear. Australia makes our rules for the things you can do in Australia,” Scott Morrison said. After the bill was passed and enacted, Google entered into agreements with Australian media companies to license content.
Google says it hopes the data analysis tools it provides to publishers will help them use the EU test to “understand traffic patterns”.