Google tests blocking news content

February 23, 2023

The tech giant Google recently announced that it is to block news content to at least 4% of Canadians. Google is doing this as a response to a new Canadian Law. However, Google has announced that it will be temporary. The testing is to happen only for four to five weeks.

What is the issue?

Canada legislated a new law called the Online News Act. According to the law, the digital data giants Meta, Google, etc should provide compensation to the platforms that are republishing Google’s content on their platform.

Why should Google pay for the news channels?

Say company A (Indian Express or The Hindu) is producing news on the Turkey earthquake. The company would have sent its agent to collect information, invested in professionals to write the news, and technocrats to publish the news. Google and other platforms use this information to list their search pages. They collect data from news channel websites. As Google is gaining benefits from the investments put in by the news channel, the Canadian Government wants Google to provide a small compensation to the news channels.

« Previous Post Next Post »