An alli­ance of NGOs, asso­cia­ti­ons and orga­ni­sa­ti­ons from the media and digi­tal indus­try have filed a for­mal com­plaint against Goo­g­le’s AI Over­views ser­vice with the Ger­man Fede­ral Net­work Agen­cy, in its role as Digi­tal Ser­vices Coor­di­na­tor (DSC). Accor­ding to the signa­to­ries, Goog­le is vio­la­ting key pro­vi­si­ons of the Digi­tal Ser­vices Act (DSA), by inte­gra­ting AI-gene­ra­ted ans­wers (so-cal­led Goog­le AI Over­views) into sear­ches. This has serious con­se­quen­ces for media diver­si­ty, free­dom of opi­ni­on and demo­cra­tic dis­cour­se.

„Traf­fic Kil­ler“ for inde­pen­dent media

With AI Over­views, users recei­ve ans­wers to search queries direct­ly in the Goog­le search results list, wit­hout having to click on the ori­gi­nal sources. The­r­e­fo­re, Goog­le is crea­ting a rival pro­duct to jour­na­li­stic and edi­to­ri­al con­tent that depri­ves media com­pa­nies of reach, redu­ces their adver­ti­sing reve­nue and threa­tens their refi­nan­cing, all based on third-par­ty con­tent.

Danie­la Beau­jean, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VAUNET — Asso­cia­ti­on of Pri­va­te Media, explains on behalf of the Alli­ance of the Media and Digi­tal Eco­no­my: “Goog­le is pla­cing its AI ans­wers ahead of third-par­ty con­tent and is thus beco­ming a “traf­fic kil­ler”. As a result, Goog­le AI Over­views redu­ces the reach and findabili­ty of inde­pen­dent and demo­cra­cy-rele­vant pri­va­te media. As a plat­form rele­vant for the dis­se­mi­na­ti­on of infor­ma­ti­on and con­tent, Goog­le is cal­led upon to coun­ter­act the cor­re­spon­ding risks, lack of trans­pa­ren­cy and mis­in­for­ma­ti­on. It is now in the hands of the Fede­ral Net­work Agen­cy as Digi­tal Ser­vices Coor­di­na­tor and the EU Com­mis­si­on to ensu­re con­sis­tent imple­men­ta­ti­on of the DSA.”

Risks due to a lack of trans­pa­ren­cy and mis­in­for­ma­ti­on

The ans­wers gene­ra­ted by Goog­le are based on a pro­prie­ta­ry model, the func­tio­ning of which is not trans­pa­rent. Stu­dies have repea­ted­ly shown that AI also dis­se­mi­na­tes incor­rect or fic­ti­tious con­tent — a direct con­tra­dic­tion to the aims of the DSA.

Dr. Chris­ti­ne Jury-Fischer, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Corint Media, on behalf of the Alli­ance of the Media and Digi­tal Eco­no­my: “Goog­le is once again pushing back com­pe­ting offe­rings, in order to con­so­li­da­te its own posi­ti­on of power. If media diver­si­ty and demo­cra­tic dis­cour­se are to be pre­ser­ved, regu­la­to­ry inter­ven­ti­on is urgen­tly nee­ded. After all, ‘digi­tal sove­reig­n­ty’ not only means having an inde­pen­dent digi­tal infra­struc­tu­re, but also ensu­ring the inde­pen­dent, non-dis­cri­mi­na­to­ry dis­tri­bu­ti­on of digi­tal jour­na­li­stic con­tent.”

Request to the DSC and the EU Com­mis­si­on

The com­plainants call on the DSC to invol­ve the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on in accordance with Art. 65 Para. 2 DSA and to initia­te pro­cee­dings. Vio­la­ti­ons of the DSA can result in seve­re sanc­tions — up to six per cent of annu­al glo­bal tur­no­ver.

Cont­act:

Corint Media GmbH
Dr. Joa­chim Jobi, Head of Public Affairs
030 206 200 27
joachim.jobi@corint-media.com
www.corint-media.com

VAUNET- Ver­band Pri­va­ter Medi­en
Hart­mut Schultz, Press Spo­kes­man
0170 4332 832
hs@schultz-kommunikation.com
www.vau.net

Alli­ance of the media and digi­tal indus­try

AW Algo­rith­m­Watch gGmbH,
Mat­thi­as Spiel­kamp, Geschäfts­füh­rer | www.algorithmwatch.org

Arbeits­ge­mein­schaft Pri­va­ter Rund­funk (APR)
Prof. Dr. Hol­ger Paes­ler, Geschäfts­füh­rer | www.privatfunk.de

Bör­sen­ver­ein des Deut­schen Buch­han­dels e. V.
Peter Kraus vom Cleff, Haupt­ge­schäfts­füh­rer | www.boersenverein.de

BDZV — Bun­des­ver­band Digi­tal­pu­blisher und Zei­tungs­ver­le­ger e. V.
Hel­mut Ver­den­hal­ven, Mit­glied der Geschäfts­lei­tung / Lei­ter Medi­en­po­li­tik | www.bdzv.de

Corint Media GmbH
Dr. Chris­ti­ne Jury-Fischer, Geschäfts­füh­re­rin | http://www.corint-media.com

Deut­scher Jour­na­lis­ten-Ver­band (DJV)
Han­na Möl­lers, Jus­ti­zia­rin, stell­vertr. Haupt­ge­schäfts­füh­re­rin | www.djv.de

Euro­pean Fede­ra­ti­on of Jour­na­lists
Rena­te Schroe­der, Direc­tor | www.europeanjournalists.org

EMMA Euro­pean Maga­zi­ne Media Asso­cia­ti­on & ENPA Euro­pean News­pa­per Publishers’ Asso­cia­ti­on
José Gui­marães, Acting Exe­cu­ti­ve Direc­tor, EMMA & ENPA | www.magazinemedia.eu | www.enpa.eu

Initia­ti­ve for Neu­tral Search & Inno­va­te Euro­pe Foun­da­ti­on (IEF)
Felix Sty­ma, Mana­ging Part­ner eco­no­my ico­no­my GmbH | www.neutralsearch.eu |ww.ie.foundation/en

Initia­ti­ve Urhe­ber­recht e.V.
Katha­ri­na Uppen­brink, Mana­ging Direc­tor | www.urheber.info

MVFP — Medi­en­ver­band der frei­en Pres­se e. V.
Prof. Dr. Chris­toph Fied­ler, Geschäfts­füh­rer Euro­pa- und Medi­en­po­li­tik | www.mvfp.de

VAUNET – Ver­band Pri­va­ter Medi­en
Dr. Mat­thi­as Förs­t­erling, Seni­or Legal Coun­sel (Recht und Regu­lie­rung) | www.vau.net

Ver­band Deut­scher Lokal­zei­tun­gen und Lokal­me­di­en e.V.
Ste­fan Wald­schmidt, Refe­rent | www.lokalpresse.de