Jala News – In a significant development, a class-action lawsuit has been filed against Google and its parent company Alphabet in the US District Court in D.C. The suit accuses the tech giant of engaging in anticompetitive behavior that violates US antitrust law on behalf of news publishers.
The complaint argues that Google has been siphoning off news publishers’ content, readers, and ad revenue through anticompetitive means, negatively impacting the free press. Specifically, the lawsuit highlights new AI technologies like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and Bard AI chatbot, claiming that they exacerbate the problem.
Helena World Chronicle, an Arkansas-based publisher, is leading the charge, asserting that Google is “starving the free press” by sharing publishers’ content on its platform without proper compensation. The lawsuit points to Google’s older question-and-answer technologies, along with features like the Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets, as contributing factors to the publishers’ struggles.
One of the main concerns highlighted in the suit is the potential impact of Google’s AI-powered search on publishers’ businesses. The complaint argues that the advanced search algorithms could lead to a significant decline in traffic to publishers’ websites, further threatening their financial viability.
The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction requiring Google to obtain consent from publishers before using their website data to train its AI products. Additionally, it demands that publishers who choose to opt out of Google’s SGE should still be included in search results, ensuring fair competition.
The timing of the lawsuit is noteworthy, as it follows Google’s recent agreement with the Canadian government to pay Canadian media for their content. This latest legal action comes alongside the US Justice Department’s separate lawsuit against Google for its monopolistic practices in digital ad technologies.
Emphasizing the broader implications, the lawsuit not only highlights the harm caused to competition and consumers but also underscores the threat posed to the democratic free press. It remains to be seen how this lawsuit will unfold and what implications it may have for the future relationship between Google and news publishers.
As the legal battle continues, the outcome of this class-action lawsuit against Google could have far-reaching consequences for the tech giant’s operations and its impact on the news industry. Stay tuned to Jala News for further updates on this case.
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