Google strips news sites’ links

California might force search giant to pay media companies

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Google on Friday began removing California news websites from some people’s search results, a test that acted as a threat should the state Legislature pass a measure requiring the search giant to pay media companies for linking to their content.

Google announced the move in a blog post on Friday, calling it a “short-term test for a small percentage of users … to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience.” The company said it also would pause new investments in the California news industry, including the partnership initiative with news organizations and its product licensing program.

“By helping people find news stories, we help publishers of all sizes grow their audiences at no cost to them. (This bill) would upend that model,” Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s vice president for global news partnerships, wrote in the blog post.

The California Legislature is considering a bill that would require tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft to pay a certain percentage of advertising revenue to media companies for linking to their content. How much the companies would have to pay would be decided by a panel of three judges through an arbitration process.

The bill aims to stop the loss of journalism jobs, which have been disappearing as legacy media companies have struggled to profit in the digital age. More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the U.S. since 2005, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade, according to Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, the bill’s author.

“This is a bill about basic fairness — it’s about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose,” Wicks said.

The state Assembly passed the bill last year with bipartisan support despite opposition and lobbying efforts from big tech companies. The California Senate would have to pass it this year for it to become law.

Supporters said the legislation would help level the playing field between news publishers and large digital platforms and provide a “lifeline” to local news organizations, which rely on Google’s search engine to distribute its content. While Google’s search engine has become the hub of a digital advertisement empire that generates more than $200 billion annually, news publishers saw their advertising revenues nosedive in the past few decades.

But opponents, including Google, Meta and some independent newsrooms, call the legislation a “link tax” that would primarily benefit out-of-state newspaper chains and hedge funds.