Google has refused to rule out shutting down Google News in EU countries because of plans to charge a “link tax” for news stories.
The EU proposals are designed to compensate news publishers if snippets of their articles appear in search results. Richard Gingras, the search engine’s vice-president of news, said while “it’s not desirable to shut down services” the company was very concerned.
He told the Guardian that the future of Google News could depend on whether the EU was willing to alter the phrasing of the legislation.
He pointed out the last time a government attempted to charge Google for links, in 2014 in Spain, the company responded by shutting down Google News in the country.
Spain passed a law requiring aggregation sites to pay for news links in a bid to prop up struggling print news outlets. Google responded by closing the service for Spanish consumers, which prompted a fall in traffic to Spanish news websites.
“We would not like to see that happen in Europe,” Gingras added. “Right now what we want to do is work with stakeholders.”
Traditional news publishers are heavily dependent on Google News to send millions of readers to their websites, which can help boost digital revenues.
