Reporters and union leaders in California say Google is blocking some users’ news content as the tech giant considers a landmark proposal to pay media companies for shared links. However, some experts warn that this will not solve the journalism industry’s financial problems.
To prepare for possible passage of the California Journalism Protection Act (CJPA), Google is “beginning a short-term test with a small portion of our users in California,” said the tech giant’s vice president of global news partnerships. Jafar Zaidi explained in a blog post on Friday. post.
“The testing process includes removing links to California news websites that may be subject to CJPA to gauge the law’s impact on our product experience,” he wrote. ing. “Until California’s regulatory environment becomes clearer, we are excited to announce further additions to the California News ecosystem, including new partnerships through Google News Showcase, product and licensing programs for news organizations, and plans to expand the Google News Initiative.” Investments will also be paused.
In response, NewsGuild-CWA President John Schluth said: Matt Pierce, president of Media Guild of the West TNG-CWA Local 39213; Annie Sciacca, president of the Pacific Media Workers Union TNG-CWA Local 39521, jointly called on state lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to “cut the jobs of California journalists by cutting off access to news.” We called on them to stand together against Google’s undemocratic threat of censorship.” It’s an election year. ”
“It is important that all voters have access to information. Journalists in California are covering the ongoing Congressional election in the 16th District, where two candidates received an equal number of votes,” they noted. did. “This is a very inappropriate time for Google to experiment with whether or not voters watch news about elected officials and political candidates.”
Zaidi said, “We have worked with California publishers and legislators throughout the legislative process to propose reasonable and balanced alternatives to the CJPA.” has not engaged in good faith with members of Congress.”
“During a December information hearing related to the bill, Google News executive Richard Gingras spoke to the committee’s chairman, Sen. Google testified to lawmakers that it has no intention of stopping publishing news. Search it,” they pointed out.
“Given today’s events, Google’s testimony to our elected leaders was clearly untrue,” the union leaders added. “Google should stop toying with California’s democracy.”
But not all big tech commentators support the CJPA or similar bills, including those passed in Australia and Canada.
Journalist and professor Jeff Jarvis wrote a piece for the Nieman Journalism Lab on Wednesday summarizing his lengthy white paper commissioned by the California Chamber of Commerce, stating that “its federal cousin, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), Similarly, the CJPA is the latest legislation.” The newspaper industry’s century-long attempt to curtail fair use and expand copyright to benefit publishers against their competitors. ”
as guardianHe reported on California’s measures as follows:
A study conducted by media reform advocacy group Free Press Action found that more than 80% of the websites that would benefit from the bill’s mandated reimbursements are owned by just 20 large corporations. found. For this reason, major media companies are actively campaigning against this bill.
“This is a battle between Google and the corporate media, and Californians are the ultimate victims,” said Mike Rispoli, senior director of Free Press Action. “This speaks to the real challenge facing local news today, where how news is produced and how it is accessed is controlled by large corporations who only care about themselves. It tells the story.”
When Canada passed legislation last year and Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta announced plans to pull content from their platforms, Tim Kerr, Free Press’ senior director of strategy and communications, warned: common dreams While criticizing the bill, he spoke of its “real-world implications.”
“I often feel that the impetus for support for bargaining provision bills in Australia, Canada and the US is simply to punish Big Tech. And of course, some of Big Tech’s actions deserve to be punished. But , the real goal here is not to punish Big Tech,” Kerr said.
“Unless we seriously consider the changing economics of news production and enact legislation to address it, we will be like trying to save water from a sinking ship,” he said.
Google similarly threatened to block news content citing Canadian law, but reached an agreement with the government in November. There were similar threats to block content in Canada over the Online News Act, before an agreement was reached with the government.
Politicalo noted that Mehta “permanently erased news content from Canadian social feeds and threatened to: do the same in parliament The state of California is also pursuing similar legislation. ”
