UK media websites given power to block Google tapping their articles in AI search
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Online publishers and news organisations are now able to block their content from appearing in Google’s AI summaries in UK search results, the British competition watchdog has announced.
Key facts
Mrinalini Loew, the general manager at Google Search Ecosystem, said it was beginning to test a tool allowing website owners to manage how their links and content appear in its AI search features
Google accounts for more than 90% of general searches in the UK, according to the CMA, and as a result publishers and news organisations have relied on search results to drive consumers
The CMA has previously estimated that search advertising costs the equivalent of nearly £500 for each UK household a year, which could be kept down with effective competition
Tom Lewis, a competition lawyer at Geradin Partners and a former CMA director who represent news publishers on Google search issues, said the changes would help news publishers keep some control
Summary
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the new requirement would “put publishers, like news organisations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google”. Many media organisations have complained that they have seen a drop in click-through traffic to their websites, and therefore their revenue, since Google started placing AI summaries at the top of its search page. Up until now, websites were also unable to opt out of their content being scraped for AI overviews without also withdrawing from traditional Google search. The News Media Association, which represents UK news publishers including the Guardian, said the decision was a “significant step towards levelling the playing field and building a fair, transparent digital economy where premium content is properly respected and fairly compensated”.