Google Threatens to Block News Access in California Over Proposed “Link Tax” Legislation
The tech giant announced on Friday that it would begin testing a small percentage of California users by removing links to California news websites in response to proposed legislation that would force the company to pay some publishers for their content. Known as the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), the bill has passed California’s lower house but still needs to be taken up by the state Senate and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom to become law. Google argues that CJPA may result in significant changes to the services it can offer Californians and the traffic it can provide to California publishers. However, critics argue that the bill is necessary to remedy the fact that much of the advertising money has gone to Big Tech platforms like Google and Facebook rather than the publishers who create the news content. Google has made similar threats after identical proposals were made in countries like Australia, India, and Canada in recent years but ultimately followed the law without too much disruption. Meta’s Facebook has also faced similar hurdles in other countries, but while Google has acquiesced, Facebook has opted to pivot in an entirely new direction by dropping news services altogether and insisting that users do not actually care about news.
The uncapped financial exposure created by CJPA would be unworkable, according to Google. If enacted, the legislation would create a level of business uncertainty that no company could accept. As a result, Google is pausing further investments in the California news ecosystem, including new partnerships through Google News Showcase and planned expansions of the Google News Initiative. It is also unclear how many users in California are currently involved in this testing process to remove links to California news sites or what may qualify as a California news site given the borderless nature of the internet. Some people argue that the CJPA would primarily benefit large media outlets, but others counter that it is not necessarily a bad thing as they employ thousands of people, create jobs, conduct expensive investigations, and lobby on behalf of journalism. They also generate and receive the most traffic from tech platforms. The role the government should play in keeping journalistic business models sustainable is a matter of debate, but it is clear that companies like Google hold monopolistic power over what news people can see around the world.
As one commentator at Cal Matters recently wrote in an opinion column, companies like Google and Facebook have threatened to turn off the spigot of news traffic to anyone in countries considering legislation to pay publishers. If just a handful of companies have the power to do that, it’s hard to argue that free market solutions can fix the problem.