According to the Guardian, Google News executives recently said they would not rule out the possibility of closing Google News in European countries. At present, Google is lobbying with the EU's plan to impose "link tax" on news content. Spain has passed a law requiring aggregation websites to pay for news links to support distressed print media.
Richard Gingras, vice president of Google News, said the company was deeply concerned about the current proposals aimed at compensating distressed news publishers, despite its "unwillingness to shut down services".
He told the Guardian that the future of Google News may depend on the EU's willingness to change the wording of legislation. "Before we see the final statement, we can't make a decision," he said.
He pointed out that the last time the government tried to link Google was in Spain in 2014. Spain then passed a law requiring aggregation websites to pay for news links to support distressed print media. In response, Google shut down its services for Spanish users, which he said led to a drop in visits to Spanish news sites.
"We do not want to see this happen in Europe," he said. What we want to do now is to cooperate with stakeholders. "
Traditional news publishers have a bad relationship with Google, accusing it of sucking up most of the advertising revenue that used to support print newspapers. However, many websites also rely heavily on traffic from Google News to their websites, which helps to increase digital revenue.
Google has been lobbying vigorously against the introduction of a "link tax" (so-called "Article 11") into European legislation and its sister legislation, "Article 13", which aims to ensure that content creators pay for content uploaded to sites such as Google's YouTube.
Richard Gingras, vice president of Google News, said the proposed tax might reduce the number of news stories in search results.
In September, members of the European Parliament overwhelmingly supported the proposals, but Google hopes to influence the European Commission and EU member states before they are confirmed. If Britain is introduced before the end of the transition period after the withdrawal of Europe, it is likely that Britain will be bound by the legislation.
The EU is one of the few large institutions that can force big technology companies like Google and Facebook to make changes. These companies are reluctant to lose the user base of 500 million citizens, which makes Brussels the core of many lobbying battles around the future of the Internet.
Gingras also claims that the proposed tax may affect the ability of news websites to find audiences through Google, and that this may lead to a reduction in the number of news reports consumers see in search results.
He also stressed that Google News is not the company's direct profit business, but acknowledged that Google News does encourage users to spend more time on the company's website. "There is no advertisement in Google news. For Google, this is not a revenue generating product. We think it is a valuable service to the society. We are proud that it is part of the stable property that people possess. "
