In the clash between the quality of search results and the business interests of publishers, Google has just taken a step backwards. According to European Commission documents accessed by Reuters, the US giant has proposed changes to its restrictive anti-spam policy. This is a strategic move to protect the company from gigantic financial penalties under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The bone of contention has become the ‘abuse of site reputation’ policy, dubbed by the tech industry as the fight against parasitic SEO. Google has been trying for months to limit the visibility of sites where reputable publishers provide sections to third parties – for example, discount coupon platforms or product reviews – for the sole purpose of exploiting the authority of the primary domain to move up the rankings quickly.
For Google, it’s a fight for search engine purity. For publishers, a blow to a legitimate and profitable business model. The European Commission has accepted the media’s arguments, concluding that Google’s algorithms as they stand may unfairly degrade valuable content, cutting publishers off from vital revenue. A November investigation by Brussels put Google up against the wall: violating the DMA rules risks fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover.
Google’s proposed concessions are intended as a compromise. The company declares that it wants to protect users from spam, but at the same time has to adapt its mechanisms so as not to infringe the economic freedom of the commercial partners of the large portals. Interested parties now have until next week to evaluate these proposals.
This situation illustrates the new reality in which Big Tech giants operate. Technocratic decisions about what is a ‘useful result’ and what is ‘spam’ are no longer the exclusive domain of Mountain View engineers. Today, the shape of algorithms is equally decided by officials in Brussels, ensuring that the battle for web quality does not become a tool to restrict competition. If Google’s proposal is accepted, it could mean a permanent change in the way the search engine treats partner content, giving publishers more breathing room in monetising their digital content.
