News publishers’ alliance calls on feds to investigate Google for limiting California links

Google said Friday that it would start to test limiting some users’ access to links from California news outlets. The alliance, which represents publishers in the news and magazine industry, said Google’s actions appear “to either be coercive or retaliatory, driven by Google’s opposition to a pending legislative measure in Sacramento.” The proposed state measure in question, called the California Journalism Preservation Act, would require tech companies, including Google, who sell advertising alongside news content to pay news publishers. Google called the claims in the News/Media Alliance’s letter “baseless” and the CJPA an “unworkable” bill that hurts “small local publishers to benefit large, out-of-state hedge funds.” “We have proposed reasonable alternatives to CJPA that would increase our support for the California news ecosystem and support Californians’ access to news,” Google said in a statement. Google said it has partnered with more than 7,000 global news publishers through its Google News Initiative, including 6,000 journalists in California, but Zaidi said the company was pausing expansion of that initiative “until there’s clarity on California’s regulatory environment.” During a news event with visiting Norwegian officials Tuesday in the Bay Area, a reporter asked Gov.