• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 3, 2024

The News/Media Alliance late Monday called on the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to immediately end Google's recent policy change that it believes puts legitimate and reliable media properties at risk of being removed from search results if they publish affiliate links or partner content.

The reasoning is that once Google takes this step -- even if in error -- it can take the search giant from weeks to months to remove manual actions applied against a site and return the website to its proper position in search results.

The alliance -- which called the decision “reckless” -- was responding to an updated version of Google’s site reputation abuse policy, the practice of publishing third-party pages on a site to exploit search rankings by taking advantage of the site's signals.

It believes the changes represent Google’s approach to cast a wide net on its monopolistic power, especially when it comes to trusted providers.

“Google’s new policy treats important media partnerships like exploitative marketing practices and undermines the financial health of news companies in a way disconnected to actual value or protection for Google users,” Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of News/Media Alliance, wrote in an emailed statement to MediaPost. “This decision has the potential to single-handedly wipe off the map affiliate content traffic and revenue streams that many news organizations rely on.”

The updated description of Google’s policy is intended to clarify verbiage it created earlier this year as part of its work to fight spam and deliver a better search experience.

The goal is for the content to rank better. The updated language became effective in November. But the alliance believes otherwise.

Evaluating policy violations requires consideration of a variety of factors -- not just considering any site claims about how the content was produced, to determine if third-party content was used in an abusive way.

The alliance believes Google’s new policy “treats important media partnerships like exploitative marketing practices and undermines the financial health of news companies” in a way that disconnects it to the actual value or protection for Google users.

“Publishers spend considerable time and resources to determine how best to serve their communities and to protect their investments in high-quality journalism, and they do not take these decisions lightly -- certainly not simply to manipulate search results,” Coffey wrote. “In fact, many publishers have published coupons and their special sections in print for decades as a valuable service to their communities. When publishers exercise control over the content they publish, they set their own brand and reputation on the line.

Coffey wrote that Google should not be in a position to control both readers’ access to information and publishers’ editorial decisions.