Plan by Mountain View tech giant comes amid battle against a state bill that would make it pay fees to news publishers for content.
Google has thrown down the gauntlet in its battle with California lawmakers and news publishers over compensation for content.
The Mountain View internet-search and digital-advertising giant will stop showing links to news stories produced by California media outlets, as it fights a state bill that would make the company and others pay fees to news publishers for content they link to on their platforms.
In a blog post Friday, Google called the move a “short-term test for a small percentage of users … to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience.”.
That could mean in the near future, if you searched for this story on Google, it might not show up in the results.
Google on Friday refused to say whether all California news outlets would be affected, or to answer other questions, including when links would be removed. As of Friday afternoon, links to publications including the Mercury News and the Sacramento Bee still showed up in search results.
Guilds representing journalists from newsrooms across California, including the Mercury News and East Bay Times, condemned the tactic.
“California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom must stand united against Google’s undemocratic threats to censor the work of California’s journalists by shutting off news access in the middle of an election year,” guild representatives said in a statement.
