Google News Reopens in Spain Eight Years After Being Closed

Google News Reopens in Spain Eight Years After Being Closed: On Wednesday, Alphabet reactivated Google News in Spain eight years. After it had to suspend the site due to a Spanish law requiring it and other news aggregators to pay publishers for using their news snippets.

Madrid enacted legislation last year incorporating the updated 2020 European Union copyright regulations. Enabling media organizations to negotiate directly with the internet giant.

The action caused Google to declare last year that Google News would reopen the following year.

In a blog post, Fuencisla Clemares, vice president for Iberia, stated, “Today, on the worldwide 20th anniversary of Google News. And after an almost eight-year vacation, Google News is returning to Spain.”

She said the business intended to quickly introduce Google News Showcase, its platform for compensating news producers, in Spain.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Google said on Tuesday that the French antitrust regulator had approved several undertakings. It had made over a copyright law intended to compensate news publishers for the use of material online.

The commission also said that a punishment it levied against Google for EUR 500 million (approximately Rs 4,120 crore) was now final since the US web giant had given up its appeal. Last year, Google paid the fee.

With the conclusions, the authority’s inquiry into Google is over. Instead, Google has agreed to hold discussions with news organizations and other publishers to negotiate a fee for using their content.