Google May Withdraw its News Service from Europe: Report

Google is considering pulling out its news service in response to a proposed Copyright Directive of the EU.

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(Photo: AP)

Google is reportedly mulling pulling out the Google News service from Europe in response to a proposed Copyright Directive of the European Union.

According to a Bloomberg report, under this directive, publishers will be given the right to demand money from web platforms if excerpts of articles appear in news search results or are shared on the concerned platform.

Not only articles, the Copyright Directive would also include within its ambit music and videos which companies like Google and Facebook will have to remove from their platforms if they haven’t obtained a licence for the same.

Though the law has not been finalised till yet, with the European Council wanting “more time to reflect in order to reach a solid position”, officials are expecting an agreement to be reached in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Google’s final decision would also be a carefully weighed, and if it indeed pulls out, it would be done so reluctantly, the company’s public policy manager Jennifer Bernal told Bloomberg.

A similar law was already passed in Spain in 2014, requiring aggregators to pay publishers, leading Google to pull the plug on its news service in the country, the Bloomberg report further pointed out.

(With inputs from Bloomberg.)