Paris – The American technology company Google from the Alphabet group, in cooperation with publishers in some countries of the European Union, will start a test program that will analyze the impact of displaying European news content in Google search and in the Google News and Google Discover services. As part of the test, the firm will exclude news content from European publishers from search results for one percent of users in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. The company made the announcement today on company blog French Division.
Search results will continue to include links to other websites, including non-EU news sites, according to Google. Subsequently, Google will evaluate the impact of displaying European news content. The company claims that it was asked by independent administrative authorities and some publishing houses to evaluate this impact.
After the experiment ends, the display of news articles in search returns to its original state. During the test program, payments Google makes to European publishers in response to the European Copyright Directive will not be affected, the company added.
According to its statement, the company currently cooperates with more than 4,000 media in 20 EU countries. The company further stated that specifically in France, it pays tens of millions of euros per year to more than 280 publishers.
This year, the French antimonopoly authority fined Google 250 million euros (CZK 6.3 billion) precisely in connection with payments for media content. The dispute was sparked by complaints from leading French news organizations, including AFP.
In this case, the Antimonopoly Office fined Google 500 million euros already in 2021.
French media companies have long accused Google of profiting from the dominance of its eponymous internet search engine and of trying to avoid compliance with copyright laws. They filed a complaint with the Antimonopoly Office on the matter in 2019. They argued that the use of excerpts from their news content contributes to the growth of the company’s advertising revenue.
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Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
