THE’digital information Is she really free? Doubts exist, especially since when Googlethrough its tools like Search and Discover, enjoys maximum discretion over the evaluation of what is published. Until we get to the accusation of censorshipafter a test launched on November 14 led to the removal of contents of European publishers from search results, Google News and the Discover feed. A cancellation that affected 1% of users in eight countries, including Italy.
According to Mountain View it was only a test to evaluate the impact of journalistic content on search and traffic to publishers. But as often happens, from testing to danger is just a few clicks away. so much so that a Paris court has threatened a fine of up to 900 thousand euros per day if the control activity continues. Google reacted by defending its actions, but in the meantime the removed articles will be temporarily replaced by results from non-European sites. The company also assured that this phase will not affect the payments expected from licensing agreements signed on the basis of the European copyright directive, but the main European publishers’ associations rebelled, defining the test as a unilateral and non-transparent act.
It all started when the European Copyright Directive, approved in 2019, introduced the obligation for online platforms to remunerate publishers for the use of their content. To comply, Google launched the Extended News Previews program, allocating a billion dollars and signing agreements with over 4,000 publications in Europe. However, despite the investments, the giant has often shown reluctance towards regulationfearing that this could limit its business model (a policy common to other Big Techs). Thus, again in France, Google has already been fined 250 million euros on charges of not having negotiated the terms of the licensing agreements in good faith and of having used journalistic content to train their own artificial intelligences, like Gemini.
The discussion on the censorship of information on the Internet is increasingly pressing: a study published at the end of 2023 by the Comparitech research center reported that this was increasing in twenty-seven countries around the world, twenty-four more than the previous year in which to exceed tolerated limits were China, Iran and North Korea. If political censorship is now added to the direct control of companies that dominate the virtual world, the situation becomes even more risky: in the past Google had already blocked some information sites in California, just as it had even thought about closing its search engine in Australia precisely because it was forced by a law to remunerate users publishers. Added to this is that Big G manages the traffic to information sites in an almost monopoly, with its own algorithms that define the visibility of content, influencing the digital economy. Plus, Discover’s personalization – based on user habits and interests – offers a feeds which promotes current articles and news, fueling an ecosystem in which the platform acts as an almost exclusive intermediary.
For this reason the offending test has now led to the request for suspension of the tests publishersbecause then “Google will evaluate Google based on search parameters determined by Google.”
And since an economic balancing for the use of the newseverything sounded like a warning arrived in the negotiation phase. In which freedom could be at risk. Or at least underpaid.