Google Tests Blocking News Content For Canadian Users

Mar 1, 2023 - 7:31 am 7 by
Filed Under Google News

google canada

Google has been testing blocking news in Google Search on about 4% of Canadian users. Google said, "We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users."

I reported on this on Search Engine Land last week after Google sent me this statement:

We're briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users. We run thousands of tests each year to assess any potential changes to Search. We've been fully transparent about our concern that C-18 is overly broad and, if unchanged, could impact products Canadians use and rely on every day. We remain committed to supporting a sustainable future for news in Canada and offering solutions that fix Bill C-18.

This is similar to what Google did in Australia in 2021, here is what that looked like:

click for full size

It is hard to know what this test looks like, I did ask Google for examples, but they did not provide them.

I did find these on Twitter, but I was not able to verify if this is the test or not:

This reminds me of this old tweet from Matt Cutts:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

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