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Google Links The Internet News

Google Vows To Stop Linking To New Zealand News If Forced To Pay For Content (apnews.com) 30

Posted by BeauHD from the corporate-threats dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Google said Friday it will stop linking to New Zealand news content and will reverse its support of local media outlets if the government passes a law forcing tech companies to pay for articles displayed on their platforms. The vow to sever Google traffic to New Zealand news sites -- made in a blog post by the search giant on Friday -- echoes strategies the firm deployed as Australia and Canada prepared to enact similar laws in recent years. It followed a surprise announcement by New Zealand's government in July that lawmakers would advance a bill forcing tech platforms to strike deals for sharing revenue generated from news content with the media outlets producing it.

The government, led by center-right National, had opposed the law in 2023 when introduced by the previous administration. But the loss of more than 200 newsroom jobs earlier this year -- in a national media industry that totaled 1,600 reporters at the 2018 census and has likely shrunk since -- prompted the current government to reconsider forcing tech companies to pay publishers for displaying content. The law aims to stanch the flow offshore of advertising revenue derived from New Zealand news products. If the media law passes, Google New Zealand Country Director Caroline Rainsford said the firm would need to change its involvement in the country. "Specifically, we'd be forced to stop linking to news content on Google Search, Google News, or Discover surfaces in New Zealand and discontinue our current commercial agreements and ecosystem support with New Zealand news publishers."

Google's licensing program in New Zealand contributed "millions of dollars per year to almost 50 local publications," she added.

Google Vows To Stop Linking To New Zealand News If Forced To Pay For Content More | Reply

Google Vows To Stop Linking To New Zealand News If Forced To Pay For Content

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  • Google dimwit Caroline Rainsford said:

    "Specifically, we'd be forced to stop linking to news content on Google Search, Google News, or Discover surfaces in New Zealand and discontinue our current commercial agreements and ecosystem support with New Zealand news publishers"

    No, dimwit, you'd be "forc[ed] to pay for articles [created by New Zealand news publishers] displayed on [your platform]". You call yourself a "director"!?!

    • They are unwilling to pay and thus a law requiring them to pay would force them to stop.

      What she said was true... from a certain point of view.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 2TecTom ( 311314 )

      Facebook is trying this crap in Canada, eh. no problem tho bro, Canadians just don't use Facebook much anymore. most of my facebook friends have branched out and or migrated to other platforms. besides facebook is getting more spammy with each passing day, some groups are ok but the ads are all manipulative and unethical

  • If these companies believe that Google is bad for business they can just edit their robots.txt to prevent Google from crawling their website and linking to their content and stealing their precious revenue. Of course that's not what they really want, which is to force Google to pay them and to force them to link their content so they have no choice but to pay them. More rent seeking behavior! Just what the Internet needs.

    • Google has market dominance in search. The reason companies can't just turn off indexing is because it's economic suicide because of that market dominance.

      Now, it's not illegal to have a monopoly, but it is illegal (at least in theory but basically not in practice any more thanks to chucklefucks like you) to use that monopoly position in one market (search) to leverage position in another market (advertising). Guess who is also market dominant in online advertising, who get paid for the ad impressions for s

      • Let them index the main page so your website still shows up, but don't let them link to specific articles. It's not that hard. But like I said it's just companies thinking they deserve to get paid. Let companies that can't figure out how to make money die so that they can be replaced by others that can instead of mandating everyone else prop up ones that no one wants to give money to.

        Google abusing a monopoly position is a different matter entirely and trying to tangle it up with this just makes for more

        • "is another matter entirely"

          *facepalm*

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by SirSlud ( 67381 )

          The amount of traffic websites get from people visiting the main page is basically zilch. The overwhelming majority of traffic comes from deeplinking, which comes from searching for articles and sharing content (eg: Google/Meta). Google and Meta both make money by taking some of that deeplink content, which keeps users on their property, making them money using content they did not produce. Companies can't afford to tell Google and Meta because Google and Meta are effectively the only game in town for peopl

      • monopoly position in one market (search)

        Search isn't a market, though. A market requires buyers and sellers, and there aren't any of either. Search services are offered for free, and users pay nothing for them.

        Search is just a way to draw traffic for ads. The same is true of (non-paywalled) news and similar content. The fact is that search and news sites are in the same market -- providing surface for advertising, and drawing eyeballs to those ads. They're competitors... and also cooperators. Search benefits from including news in the res

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by SirSlud ( 67381 )

          Search isn't a market, though. A market requires buyers and sellers, and there aren't any of either. Search services are offered for free, and users pay nothing for them.

          yikes, disagree. markets that are primarily ad revenue driven are not in the same market just because they're both primarily ad revenue driven. that's .. uh a fucked up view of markets unless you subscribe to a viewpoint that markets are not about what is produced, but rather how they are funded. People *buy* things - seemingly for free - b

    • The original promise of search engines like Google is that if you let Google index, people will search for pages and that will give you traffic. It's a win-win and they are happy with that part. What they don't agree with is Google having a "Google News" homepage where they post an image and enough of the summary such that there no traffic is sent. This mode is parasitic.

      There isn't a robots.txt option to accept one and not the other. Google says that they will delist the entire websites, which isn't what t

  • meant to fleece a rich American company. Typical. I hope Google does cut them off. Would be a win win for everyone honestly. Now if we can get Google to cut off USA and we'd be free of them!

  • Facebook is pulling the same kind of thing in Canada. These tech giants pick countries with relatively small economies and try to bully them. Canada has stood strong against Meta. I hope New Zealand does the same.

  • Negotiating Tactic (Score:3)

    by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Friday October 04, 2024 @07:59PM (#64840853)

    This is just Google negotiating on a final price. We've been through this before with Google. Its M.O. is to threaten deindexing, then accept a counteroffer. Google will cave, and New Zealand will get its money.

  • Third option:t Google could link to the news sites without ripping off their content (except for the headline).
    Eg: unless it has an agreement with the news site, Google (and Facebook, and others) would be allowed to use the headline and link to the article.
  • google's been a shithole forever. capitalism's free market bullshit is proven to all be lies by the fact that nothing has replaced google yet.

  • Wouldn't it be fun if NZ media at this point say "So remind us again why we should use Google Tag Manager and YouTube if you're not linking us, mate."

    If the whole of NZ media is delinked from Google, you can bet your last kiwifruit that alternatives will pop up locally - as well as driving the NZ public from Google to Duckduckgo, Playeur and all the rest. Good thing IMHO, and the local IT industry would be cracking open a few celebratory beersies. The Kiwis have a lot to say about colonial attitudes at the

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