Questions to Google go unanswered

Our exposé – into how Australia’s try and make Google and Meta pay for his or her use of reports content material impressed governments around the globe to do the identical — connects the dots on the worldwide battles to make tech giants pay up. But there’s a set of questions sitting with Google, News Corp Australia and Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino’s workplace that stay unanswered. 

Reported together with our companions from Indonesia, Canada and Brazil, Crikey’s story spoke to a number of former Google executives, and revealed how News Corp Australia’s assist for the coverage was used as a scare tactic overseas by the tech giants. We additionally revealed that some publishers overseas worry language in contracts they signed with Google may enable the tech firm to make use of their tales to coach AI bots.

Ahead of publication, our reporting companions Agência Pública, CLIP, and Lighthouse Reports despatched an in depth checklist of inquiries to Google. In return, they acquired a two-sentence assertion. 

Crikey additionally reached out to the workplace of Assistant Treasurer Mulino — who’s accountable for Labor’s proposed new media bargaining coverage — and News Corp Australia, however we haven’t heard again from both to this point. 

Today, we’re publishing the questions that we requested Google in relation to our bargaining code tales.

• Google News Showcase clauses in contracts reviewed by this investigation have an effect on some rights of signatory information shops, comparable to: NDAs [that] limit the capability to debate particulars of offers with different information shops and coordinating an trade strategy; a clause the place publishers acknowledge that “the site visitors that Google sends to Publisher’s on-line properties is ample remuneration for Google’s indexation, show, and different comparable makes use of of content material from Publisher’s publications in reference to Google’s automated referencing companies”; [and] one other clause states that Google may terminate the contract if a regulation was handed to determine fee mechanism or that Google may terminate the contract if the writer “participates in or initiates a authorized declare or criticism regarding Google’s or its Affiliates’ use of reports content material, pursued different copyright types of fee in courts”.
• We seen many parallels in how Google resisted information media bargaining laws throughout Brazil, Australia, Canada, the US and Indonesia. A former worker known as it a “playbook.” Does Google have a set of methods or “playbook” it makes use of to reply to rules like these?
• On what grounds did Google choose the Canadian Journalism Collective to distribute the $100 million fund for information in Canada? 
• Why did you create the Google News Initiative? How may Google shareholders profit from such a program? How do you reply to the accusation that it was an try at “company seize” of the media? 
• Has Google deliberately organised Newsgeist occasions in nations the place the corporate was going through regulatory strain relating to media? 
• During the legislative course of in Canada, Google claimed Bill C-18 would drawback smaller shops. However, teams just like the National Ethnic Media and Press Council of Canada contend that smaller publishers had been usually ignored by Google for funding. What is your response to this allegation?     
• In Australia, Canada, and Brazil, lawmakers described “threats” to tug overseas as a method to halt regulatory debates. Is this an correct description of what occurred and if not, how would you describe Google actions? 
• After saying Google would cease offering information in a number of areas, together with in California the place it blocked California-based information shops’ content material for some state residents in 2024, Google has not pulled out information utterly, aside from eradicating Spanish publishers from Google News and snippets from French shops in search. Can you touch upon this consequence? 
• What was the position of Richard Gingras, your vice-president for information from 2017 till earlier this 12 months, in shaping public coverage in favour of Google’s pursuits?
• Was Google News Showcase a direct response to the regulatory strain Google was going through? 
• How does Google select which publishers to signal Google News Showcase licensing agreements with?
• What do you make of critics’ claims that Showcase funding creates monetary dependency for information shops?
• Why had been these clauses inserted? Our sources allege that these clauses push shops to surrender different rights when becoming a member of Showcase. Is that an correct description? If not, may you clarify why you place in place such restrictive clauses?  
• Are these clauses current in contracts everywhere in the world, or do they range from nation to nation? 
• Some clauses of the Showcase contracts needed to be modified in Germany after an investigation from Germany’s federal competitors regulator, Bundeskartellamt, however they’re nonetheless being utilized in different nations. How do you clarify this discrepancy?
• Some specialists declare that one other clause within the Showcase contracts, [which] provides Google the flexibility to “reproduce, distribute, publicly show, publicly carry out, and in any other case use the Publication Content in reference to Google services”, may very well be a authorized safety in case information shops request fee for AI coaching. What is your response to that? 
• Does Google plan to signal different information licensing offers for AI coaching functions? 
• Research from Muckrack suggests a major quantity of AI overview content material originates from information publishers. To what extent has Google used information content material for AI coaching functions to this point? 
• A current examine by Swiss financial consulting agency FehrAdvice, discovered the inclusion of journalism in search outcomes helps contribute to the topicality, belief and completeness of Google’s choices in Germany. It concluded that on common, journalistic content material will increase Google’s worth by 24%. A earlier examine from the identical firm discovered that in Switzerland the perceived worth of search elevated with the insertion of reports by 16%. This contrasts considerably to your findings from current trials. Have financial research like these led to adjustments in your coverage relating to information? 
• What did Karan Bhatia, Google’s head of presidency affairs and public coverage, talk about with the Australian ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, throughout their assembly on March 3, 2025?

Disclosure: As a part of the News Media Bargaining Code, Private Media (dad or mum firm of Crikey) acquired funds from Meta and Google from the center of 2021. Meta terminated its offers with all publishers in mid-2024. Private Media continues to obtain funding from Google as a part of the code.