Google says it will start removing links to California news websites for some users in California. The move from Google comes in response to the pending California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay a fee for linking users in the state to news articles.
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Google, in the testing phase, will remove links to California news websites, potentially covered by CJPA, to measure the impact of the legislation on its product experience.
“If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers”, Jaffer Zaidi, VP Global News Partnerships at Google said in a blog post.
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Zaidi further said that Google will also pause “further investments in the California news ecosystem”.
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While supporters of the bill argue it gives news publishers more leverage to bargain better deals with Google, criticisms include the difficulty faced in putting an actual number on the amount Google makes from news.
This is not the first time Google has opposed attempts by governments to force it to pay media outlets. The search giant pulled out of Spain in 2022, after similar measures were passed. The company also pulled out of Australia in 2020, when the country introduced laws requiring the company to pay news publishers. In Australia, the company later came to a deal with publishers paving the way for similar legislation in Canada, New Zealand and the U.S.