Google threatens to block links to New Zealand news if they are forced to pay for content

Google will no longer link to news content in New Zealand if the small island nation passes a new law requiring the massive tech company to pay for outgoing links. Australia and Canada have passed similar laws and Google issued the same warning for each.

"Specifically, we’d be forced to stop linking to news content on Google Search, Google News, or Discover surfaces in New Zealand and discontinue our current commercial agreements and ecosystem support with New Zealand news publishers," said Google New Zealand Country Director Caroline Rainsford in the event that the law passes. Google, she said, has a licensing program in place that contributed "millions of dollars per year to almost 50 local publications."

At issue is a New Zealand law that aims to prop up local news organizations by forcing search engines that source the articles from local news sources to pay for those links. New Zealand lawmakers said in July that they would be putting forward a bill that would require tech companies to "strike deals for sharing revenue generated from news content with the media outlets producing it." The AP reports that "The law aims to stanch the flow offshore of advertising revenue derived from New Zealand news products."

A further, likely reason for the implementation of the law is that New Zealand has seen a loss of over 200 jobs in the news industry in 2024 alone. The government is aiming to both save jobs and save their local news industry, which employed 1,600 people nationwide as of 2018. Under the bill, tech companies would be made to pay for the content links they show on their search engines. 

New Zealand's News Publishers’ Association said that Google was making "threats" and that these "threats" are "the kind of pressure that it has been applying" to news groups. 

Public Affairs Director Andrew Holden went on to say that New Zealand "should be able to make laws to strengthen democracy in this country without being subjected to this kind of corporate bullying." Minister for Media Communications Paul Goldsmith said that he expects to pass the law by the end of the year.