In order to assess the effects of proposed legislation that would compel the business to pay for serving up such content, Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., will temporarily deactivate links to news sites in California for an unknown number of users in the state.
In a blog post published on Friday, Jaffer Zaidi—Google's VP of global news partnerships—stated that the tech giant would undertake "a short-term test for a small percentage of California users" to identify the impact of the proposed laws on Google's offerings.
A Google representative would not comment on the scope of the test, the number of users impacted, or the news outlets that would be participating.
No company could accept” the amount of uncertainty that the California Journalism Preservation Act, as put forth by Zaidi, would generate. "We implore legislators to adopt an alternative tack in order to forestall a situation in which the news industry in California suffers and all parties involved end up losing."
Further, Zaidi announced that "until there's clarity on California's regulatory environment," the corporation will not proceed with its planned investments in California News.
Efforts have been made by governments worldwide to get tech companies to pay for news. Following the passage of a law mandating internet platforms to compensate local news publications by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government last year, Alphabet said that it would delete connections to Canadian publishers' news content on Google. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms Inc. has decided to end its news function in Canada, the United States, and Australia.
The bill's sponsor, California Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, stated in a statement that she intends to maintain communication with Google
Platforms should be required to pay for the content they reuse, according to her, and this law is all about simple fairness. "We will not rest until we have reached an agreement with Google and all other interested parties to protect the future of journalism in California and keep the democratic lights on
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