Google announced today that it is shuttering its Google News aggregating service in Spain, thanks to a new law that goes into effect there in January.
The new law has been touted as anti-piracy, but, as the Washington Post notes, others have dubbed it a “Google tax.” It requires news aggregator sites - like Google News - to pay news sites in order to include small snippets of their content. In addition, the law bans publishers from giving any news aggregator special treatment. They have to charge Google News if they want small previews of their content shown.
So, Google decided instead to just close Google News in Spain. Be Dec. 16, Google News in Spain will be shut down.
“As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable,” Google News head Richard Gingras wrote. “So it’s with real sadness that on 16 December (before the new law comes into effect in January) we’ll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain.”
According to PCMag, Google recently faced off against Germany over a similar law. However, links have begun appearing on Google News Germany without any blurbs, with only headlines and links showing.
Overall in Europe, Google has faced plenty of legal challenges. In May, the search giant had to launch a “right to be forgotten” form, which allows EU citizens to apply to have search results removed.