Google pulls news content from EU publishers in a limited-scale test

As Google keeps working through its relationships with publishers, news readers and regulators, it’s launching a new test: removing news articles from EU-based publishers in Search.

The test will reveal to publishers just how much traffic they’d lose without Google

In a recent blog post, Google explained it will conduct the test to align with the European Copyright Directive (EUCD). The test aims to gather more data on Google’s impact on news content, as requested by “regulators and publishers.”

The company refers to the experiment as a “small, time-limited test” where Google will exclude results from EU-based news publishers in Google News, Search, and Discover. While the goal is to see how removing news from results affects traffic and the search experience, it won’t be visible to all users.


The company will keep showing results from websites and news publishers outside the EU and will bring back results from EU-based news publishers once the test is over.

While this experiment might seem minor, I think it could actually be a warning. Once the test is over, EU news publishers will clearly see how much traffic they’d miss without Google. At the same time, Google might learn just how much its users truly care about news. Not long ago, Facebook took a similar route, eventually scrapping the News tab and halting payments to publishers entirely.

Over the years, Google has strongly resisted regulations pushing the company to pay publishers for their content. In 2021, Google even threatened to pull its search engine from Australia over a proposed law that would have required tech companies to share royalties with news publishers.

Last year, Google removed its news links from Canada after Bill C-18 (the Online News Act) was introduced, which required tech companies to negotiate payments with online publishers for linked content. After several months of talks, Google stated that Canada had addressed its concerns and provided a way for the company to get an exemption.

More recently, Google pulled links to California news outlets in response to the state’s Journalism Preservation Act. So, if this small test in the EU is any indication, Google could be gearing up for even bolder moves down the road.