""We are concerned that Google's policies do not allow news publishers to be treated in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner in its search results," according to Teresa Ribera, the European Commission's EVP for clean, just and competitive transition policy. The commission stated it was investigating parent company Alphabet's supposed demotion of publisher websites and content in Google Search, and if it may "impact publishers' freedom to conduct legitimate business, innovate, and cooperate with third-party content providers.""
""On Thursday, the EU's executive arm revealed the action following monitoring that discovered select content by sponsors or advertisers was granted a lower priority by Google Search and that it was less or no longer visible in search queries. Google, meanwhile, called the EU investigation "misguided" and "without merit." "Unfortunately, the investigation announced today into our anti-spam efforts is misguided and risks harming millions of European users," company officials said.""
European Commission investigators opened a probe after monitoring found certain sponsored or advertiser content received lower priority in Google Search and became less or not visible in queries. Teresa Ribera, the commission's EVP for clean and competitive transition policy, said Google’s policies may prevent news publishers from being treated fairly and non-discriminatorily in search results. The inquiry will examine whether Alphabet’s demotion of publisher sites affects publishers’ ability to conduct legitimate business, innovate, and cooperate with third-party content providers, and whether it reduces important revenues. Google called the investigation misguided and without merit and defended its anti-spam efforts while facing a prior September fine over $3 billion for alleged ad-tech anti-competitive practices.
Read at Miami Herald
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]