The News/Media Alliance sent a letter to Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Google, expressing serious concerns over Google’s recent unilateral changes to its spam policy, the implementation of which has been highly disruptive and harmful to publishers and their readers alike. The recent drafting and implementation of Google’s new “Site Reputation Abuse” policy was done without any meaningful consultation with affected publishers and has been applied by Google in a haphazard and market-abusive way. The result has been the deranking of reindexing of whole sections of substantively valid and reader-valued publisher properties ranging from coupon and affiliate link pages, to sports betting, lottery, and gaming content. The letter calls on Google to immediately pause the implementation of the new policy and to work together with publishers to revise the policy, and provide adequate due process, and a mechanism for first party oversight over implementation of any policy. Read the full letter here.
Charlotte McBirney is Senior Counsel and Director, Public Policy for the News/Media Alliance.