Google News May Shut Down in EU Over 'Link Tax'
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 IST
HIGHLIGHTS
*Google may shut down its Google News service in the European Union
*According to the new directive, tech giants must pay for work of artists
*This is not the first time has been made to charge Google for links
Google may shut down its Google News service in the European Union (EU) if a proposed "link tax" for using news stories comes into force in member countries, The Guardian reported.
According to the new copyright directive, adopted by the European Parliament on September 12, tech giants must pay for work of artists and journalists which they use.
To put the rule changes into effect, individual member countries would have to draft local laws.
Google is deeply concerned about the current proposals, which are designed to compensate struggling news publishers if snippets of their articles appear in search results, Richard Gingras, the search engine's Vice President of News told the Guardian.
The future of Google News could depend on whether the EU was willing to alter the phrasing of the legislation, he said.
"We can't make a decision until we see the final language," he was quoted as saying.
This is not the first time an attempt is being made to charge Google for links. In 2014, Spain passed a law requiring aggregation sites to pay for news links.
Google then decided to close down the service for Spanish consumers.
Traditional media outlets tend to blame Google for sucking up much of the advertising revenue which used to prop up print newspapers, the Guardian reported.
But many news websites also depend on the service to drive traffic to their websites.
Google News is not directly a profit-making business for the company, while it does encourage users to spend more time on the company's websites, Gingras said, adding that the search giant does not put any advertising in Google News.
Related Topics
Trending News & Articles
ALMATY: Hour upon hour, day upon day, Omir Bekali and other detainees in far western China's new indoctrination camps had to disavow the...
Recently posted . 219K views . 1 min read
If you have payed attention to the belly buttons of people on the beach or the members of your family, you have probably noticed that they have different shapes and...
Recently posted . 10K views . 2 min read
The Langya henipavirus has a place with a similar group of infections, including Nipah, which is known to kill up to 3/4 of people in extreme cases.
Recently posted . 6K views . 1 min read
Queen's death: The eldest of her four children, Charles, Prince of Wales, who at 73 was the oldest heir apparent in British history, became king immediately...
Recently posted . 5K views . 1 min read
More in Global
The site said it would not allow videos that featured "pranks with a perceived danger of serious physical injury".
Recently posted. 921 views . 1 min read
When you’re buckling down to get through a hefty to-do list, the environment that you’re in has a huge impact on your ability to concentrate and work ef...
Recently posted. 1K views . 2 min read
The move sparked debate online
Recently posted. 1K views . 0 min read
Recently posted . 1K views
Recently posted . 992 views
Recently posted . 2K views
Recently posted . 2K views
Recently posted . 4K views . 67 min read
Recently posted . 4K views . 99 min read
When Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy first met, they were not meeting as the founders of two leading IT companies from India, Wi...
Recently posted. 946 views . 3 min read
A US judge has awarded $13 million (over Rs 91 crore) to 22 unnamed women, ruling that they were tricked into appearing in widely distributed online porn vide...
Recently posted. 811 views . 1 min read