Google blocks some California news as fight over online journalism bill escalates
The search giant is reprising a tactic it has used to battle similar bills in other countries, requiring platforms to pay news publishers.
Californians may find their Google results bereft of local news links Friday morning as the search giant escalates its fight against a landmark state bill aimed at forcing tech giants to pay online publishers.
Google is temporarily blocking California-based news outlets’ content for some state residents, reprising a political tactic the tech industry has repeatedly used to try to derail such bills in places like Canada and Australia that require online platforms to pay journalism outlets for articles featured on their websites.
“We have long said that this is the wrong approach to supporting journalism,” Google’s vice president for global news partnerships, Jaffer Zaidi, said in a Friday blog post. Zaidi warned the bill could “result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers.”
Sacramento is hosting the latest round of a global fight over the journalism industry’s future in the digital age, and California’s battle has taken on additional resonance because the state is home to tech titans. Advocates for such legislation argue companies like Google and Meta have helped decimate already flagging newsroom revenues through their control over digital advertising, and outlets deserve compensation for content that users may see on their platforms for free.
The companies counter that these laws could stifle vital sources of information — and they’ve fought back by attempting to preview what they say that would look like.
Google made similar threats to block content in Canada over its online news legislation before reaching a deal there with the government. Meta, meanwhile, permanently erased news content from its social feed in Canada and has threatened to do the same if Congress and California advance similar legislation.
In California, the company has lobbied heavily against the measures currently before the California Legislature, channeling more than $1 million to an organization that ran an ad campaign decrying the bill as a “link tax.” Zaidi used the same phrase in his blog post.
The bill’s supporters argued Google had demonstrated why legislation is needed by displaying its outsize control over information. Danielle Coffey, president of the News/Media Alliance trade group, assailed what she called the company’s “undemocratic” approach. (POLITICO’s parent company, Axel Springer, is a member of the News/Media Alliance.)
“We will not allow California newsrooms to be censored, silenced and threatened,” Coffey said in a written statement. “The need for the California Journalism Preservation Act could not be more clear — Google is not above the law.”
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks parked the legislation in the state Senate Judiciary committee last year after it cleared the Assembly on a bipartisan vote. The bill must pass the Senate and win Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval this year to become law.
It could get a boost from Wicks’ increased political clout: A leadership change in November vaulted the Oakland Democrat into the chair of the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee, a key chokepoint for consequential bills.
Wicks offered a measured response to Google’s move on Friday, saying she was “committed to negotiating” with the company. But state Senate leader Mike McGuire, who has significant sway over the bill’s progress through his chamber, was notably more aggressive as he excoriated Google for an “abuse of power” that he said showed “extraordinary hubris.”
“Let me be crystal clear: The legislative process will not be blunted by this bullying. This is a breach of public trust and we call on Google Executives to answer for this stunt,” McGuire said in a statement.
Despite the industry’s counteroffensive, many Democrats have embraced Wicks’ argument that the journalism industry needs a financial lifeline. At an informational hearing in December, some senators pushed back on a Google representative who decried Wicks’ bill.
“Newspaper publishers and the journalists provide a really important service as a part of [Google’s] broader business model, and meanwhile they’re going bankrupt and you guys have record profits,” state Sen. Ben Allen said.