Google Goes On Attack Against California Bill to Pay News Sites
Assembly Bill 886, called the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) to require Google to pay news publishers for using their news content on its platform. The bill passed the Assembly last year and is currently being marked-up by the state Senate Judiciary Committee.
Google thinks it is a terrible idea to require the company to be charged a fee when connecting California residents to news sources. In an action to demonstrate Google’s clout, the company began removing links on Friday for California news websites from search results for some Californians.
Google Vice President Of Global News Partners Jaffer Zaidi stated: “The bill represents “the wrong approach to supporting journalism” and “would create a level of business uncertainty that no company could accept.”
Google’s retaliatory move to not connect searches to California news sites was described by Zaidi as a “short-term test.”
Facebook parent Meta under the threat of being charged for each news site search said in September that it would “get rid of” its Facebook news tab in major European countries including France, England and Germany as “part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most.”
Meta also banned Canadian users last year from sharing news on its apps after the federal government passed the Online News Act, which forces American tech companies to pay content fees to domestic media outlets.
Zaidi warned: “If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers.”
Google also said it would be: “pausing further investments in the California news ecosystem, including new partnerships through Google News Showcase, our product and licensing program for news organizations, and planned expansions of the Google News Initiative.”
California bill supporters claim the legislation will help news publishers receive a fair percentage of ad revenues being reaped tech giants like Apple, Google and Meta.
Critics within the journalism industry worry the bill would foster a compensation ecosystem dominated by larger, more-resourced newsrooms like the New York Times over independent journalists.
Google has opposed similar media payment measures abroad, including in Spain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. But the company ultimately acquiesced to the rules in those venues..