From lawsuits to lobbying: How publishers are fighting AI

"This week, a U.K. coalition comprised of the Independent Publishers Alliance, non-profit tech-justice company Foxglove, and non-profit advocacy group Movement for the Open Web revealed that they have kicked off a lobbying effort with the Department of Justice, in the hope that the U.S. regulator will hear their evidence for why and how Google's AI Overviews has caused "substantial and irreparable harm" to independent publishers' traffic and revenue."

"Since those earlier filings, the coalition has interviewed a range of publishers and gathered evidence of impact on traffic, impressions, click-through rates, revenue, and other metrics as a result of Google AI Overviews, per its letter to the DOJ, seen by Digiday. The evidence ranges from large publishers with millions of clicks a day to medium and smaller-sized publishers, the letter states, which also claims that some publishers are suffering traffic drops of up to 90 percent."

A U.K. coalition of the Independent Publishers Alliance, Foxglove, and Movement for the Open Web has begun lobbying the U.S. Department of Justice over Google’s AI Overviews. The coalition previously filed complaints with the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission alleging that AI Overviews and AI Mode exclude rival publishers and favor Google's own answers. Coalition interviews and a letter to the DOJ present evidence of declines in traffic, impressions, click-through rates, and revenue across large, medium, and small publishers. Some publishers report traffic drops up to 90 percent, prompting closures or staff cuts. A Foxglove co-founder urged use of an opt-out to stop unauthorized scraping while remaining indexed. Google did not provide a response.

Read at Digiday