European press associations on Monday criticized Google’s decision to temporarily exclude, in its search engine, news content from European Union (EU) media outlets.
The European Magazine Media Association (EMMA), the European Newspaper Publishers Association (ENPA) and News Media Europe (NME) issued a joint statement urging the technology giant to suspend the decision with immediate effect, calling for a dialogue with the European media sector press to agree on “a common way forward”.
Last week, Google had announced a “small test” of limited duration in which content from the European press would be suppressed in Google News, Search and Discover and which, according to the Mountain View company, would only affect 1% of users in Belgium , Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and France.
“We ran this test with the intention of understanding what impact results from EU press publications have on users’ search experience and the traffic publishers receive,” Google explained in its announcement.
“Google’s unilateral announcement to restrict press content is not only an inadequate response to the issue of transparency, but an unacceptable measure: Google will evaluate Google based on search parameters determined by Google,” they reported on Monday in the joint statement the European editors.
These associations urge Google, which they classify as a digital guardian, that any potential research be carried out with full transparency, with timely consultation with publishers, independent verification and that results be shared publicly.
The technology company justified the temporary suspension with the request from regulators and publishers to evaluate data showing the effect that its journalistic content has on the Google search engine.
In its announcement, Google defended its position and called for its status as the first company to implement a specific program to comply with article 15 of the European directive on copyright and related rights in the digital single market (EUCD, in its acronym in English).
Source: www.cmjornal.pt
