Summary
- The European Union is investigating whether Google is demoting commercial content from journalistic websites, affecting the visibility and revenue of these companies.
- The Digital Markets Regulation requires Google to provide fair and non-discriminatory access to websites, including advertisements and articles with discount coupons.
- Google defends its anti-spam policies, claiming they protect users against low-quality content and accuses the EU of compromising the usefulness of the search engine.
The European Union has launched an investigation into whether Google is “downgrading” commercial content from journalistic websites. This could lead to an unfair “loss of visibility and revenue” for media companies, in the bloc’s assessment.
According to authorities, monitoring indicates that some content created with advertisers and sponsors now has a lower priority in Google results, becoming practically invisible. The change may be the effect of big tech’s anti-spam policy.
EU wants space on Google for branded content
And what content would that be? Advertisements, offer lists, articles with discount coupons and other similar materials. News and reports are not involved here.
Even so, the European Union Digital Markets Regulation (DMA) determines that Google must provide access conditions to websites in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner. For authorities, these partnerships between media companies and brands are a “normal commercial practice in the offline world” and should have space in a fair online marketplace like Google.
Publications will be able to submit evidence of impacts potentially caused by Google. The bloc’s executive arm will then investigate whether there are signs of violations of legislation.
“We are taking action to ensure that digital gatekeepers do not unfairly restrict companies that rely on them to promote their own products or services,” said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for competition policy.
Authorities also mention concerns about the risks that media companies run with the arrival of artificial intelligence.
Despite the announcement, the block says this is a normal request. The DMA provides for fines of up to 20% of Google’s revenue, but this will only be applied if Google is systematically violating the rules, authorities consider.
Google says fight spam and protect users
In a text published on its blog, Google did not deny the practices and defended its policies against spam, saying that the investigation is “wrong and puts millions of European users at risk”.
The company claims to be combating what it calls “site reputation abuse”. The technology giant argues that scammers and spammers were paying for publications and taking advantage of the good reputation of famous websites to appear in search results, leading readers to click on low-quality content.
Google also accused the European Union of making its search engine less useful for users and companies through the DMA. “European users deserve better, and we will continue to advocate for policies that build trust in search results.”
It’s worth mentioning that Google makes money from ads that appear in the search — and it’s not uncommon for them to also be used inappropriately.
With information from the Guardian
Source: https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/google-vira-alvo-de-investigacao-da-uniao-europeia-por-mudancas-na-busca/
