Google ‘testing’ will exclude EU publishers from news links

Google is conducting a “test” that will exclude results from EU news publishers. The company says the time-limited trial will only affect a small portion of users in nine EU countries and will help “test how results from EU news publishers affect the search experience for our users and traffic to publishers.” But given the fragile nature of the media — and the company’s history of threatening to pull its resources when faced with news-related regulations — it’s tempting to view it as a mob boss running a “small test” to see how. The laundromat in the corner costs money without its protection.

Google describes the experiment (with The Verge) as a “small, time-limited experiment” to remove EU results from search, Google News and Discover’s personal feed. It will only affect 1 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 that news results will be released as usual once the test is completed. (It did not post a specific time.) Google insists that the review will not affect publisher payments it makes under the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), with which the company has agreements with more than 4,000 EU publishers.

Google has a history of using the potential withdrawal of its visibility as a bargaining chip in similar situations. In some cases, this strategy has helped them to withdraw.

Last year, Google removed its news links from Canada in response to Bill C-18 (Online News Act), which required technology companies to negotiate compensation with online publishers for linked content. After months of negotiations, Google said Canada had addressed its concerns and offered a way out. Canada said it offered one to Google last month, with the company agreeing to pay $100 million a year to news organizations.

In April of 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 to continue linking to their websites. Although the bill’s fate is up in the air, Google struck a deal with lawmakers this summer, donating $10 million to a local news fund.

In 2021, the company threatened to remove the entire search engine from Australia because of a then-proposed law that would have required tech companies to share royalties with news publishers. The Prime Minister of the nation at that time stood firm. “Let me clarify. Australia makes our own rules for what you can do in Australia,” Scott Morrison said. After the bill was passed and enacted, Google began working with Australian media companies to license content.

Google says it hopes the data analysis tools it offers publishers will help them use EU tests to “understand traffic patterns.”