The Irony of Google’s News Initiative in India
Google, the go-to resource for all kinds of information on the internet, including news, has made efforts to expand the boundaries of journalism. However, it has faced criticism for profiting through Google Ads on websites that disseminate fake news. Besides, the tech giant is accused of setting high SEO standards that disadvantage smaller news outlets by affecting their visibility in search results. This practice makes it challenging for these smaller entities to compete effectively in the digital space. The American tech giant has recognised the issue and rolled out the second edition of the Google News Initiative (GNI) in India. It’s a program to help local news publishers with easy subscriptions, better ads, and monetising their formats. The goal is to give a boost to struggling local journalism. “Chosen out of over 110 applicants from across India, the ten news startups cover a diverse array of categories of journalism, including investigative, political, medical, youth, climate, and local news that provides a voice to underrepresented communities,” said Google in a press release. The media outlets selected this year include Feminism in India, SouthLive, QueerBeat, Ground Report and so on. Since 2018, Google has been talking about throwing $300 million to fight misinformation, support fact-checkers, and “help journalism thrive in the digital age.” But the crumbs Google tosses through the GNI don’t quite cut it, especially when you weigh it against the benefits Google rakes in from news content. An investigation by ProPublica in 2022 shows that Google’s money-making ad business is thriving through spreading false information. The investigation, a first of its kind, documented Google placing ads on global sites peddling lies about vaccines, Covid-19, climate change, and elections. Even the GNI project that was initiated to help “quality publications to flourish” seems deceiving.  Quality independent media outlets continue to gasp for air as Google has got them in a chokehold with its SEO standards. The Digital Frenemy While the company has publically invested time and money in journalism initiatives, ironically it is one of the reasons for suffocating journalism. Google uses its market dominant position to force news publishers into the use of their content in the newly designed Google News app – Google’s mobile news aggregator, that’s all about Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). The Google News app is designed to keep readers hooked to the summary instead of leading them to the articles’ sources. To participate in the application, news publishers have to sign on the dotted line of Google’s News Producer Terms of Service, which grants rights for Google to use the content. The company has the rights to exploit the news not just for Google News and its app but for everything under the Google umbrella, aka “Google Services.” Furthermore, Google is using news publishers’ AMP content to fuel its “Google Discover” service, another news aggregator that is similar to social media. But Google never negotiated any specific use licence with the news publishers for this content. Finally, Google Search is increasingly becoming a final destination rather than a pointer to news websites. Google flexing those market muscles forces publishers to agree to new features that keep users glued to Google rather than wandering off to the actual news websites. Purchasing Power Folding in AdSense in 2003, YouTube in 2006 and similar purchases have turned Google into a digital octopus allowing it to meddle with anything important online: content distribution, advertisement, ad placement, and content itself. The buying out approach has brought billions of dollars in Google’s pockets but consequences have been experienced in the media industry. Time and again, studies have shown how Google is hindering journalism. For instance the White Paper by News Media Alliance published in 2022 gives a detailed overview of how the company is abusing its dominance. The paper also demanded Google to fairly compensate the publishers for using their content. Google is trying to do the right thing with GNI but it continues to miss the mark as local news struggles to hit the top results. The company is in a dire need of tweaking its algorithms to balance its top results and a change in the way its SEO performs could be a good way to start.
Since 2018, Google has been throwing $300M to “help journalism thrive in the digital age”
Google started throwing $300M to fight misinformation, support fact-checkers, and “help journalism thrive in the digital age.”
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Tasmia is a tech journalist at AIM, looking to bring a fresh perspective to emerging technologies and trends in data science, analytics, and artificial intelligence.