Google News VP resigns amid rising tensions with publishers
Shailesh Prakash, the former Vice President and General Manager of Google News, has resigned amidst rising tensions between Google and news publishers. Notably, Prakash joined Google in November 2022, after spending 11 years at The Washington Post. There, he was instrumental in moving the newspaper toward digital and building an in-house advertising technology business. He also worked with Jeff Bezos after the latter acquired The Washington Post for $500 million (roughly ₹3,700 crore) in 2013.
Google's business practices under scrutiny
Recently, Google has been facing criticism for its business practices, especially those that reportedly hurt news publishers. Back in May, the tech giant introduced a feature called "AI Overviews," which puts an auto-generated summary on top of its search results while pushing links to other sites further down. The move had drawn backlash from online publishers who claimed it would be "catastrophic to our traffic."
Allegations of copyright infringement and legislative evasion
Google is also accused of using publishers' copyrighted content to "train" its artificial intelligence tools without proper credit or attribution. The company has also been alleged to evade legislative efforts aimed at ensuring tech firms pay their fair share. These controversies add to the ongoing legal challenges faced by Google, including a major antitrust case targeting its digital advertising business.
DOJ's antitrust case against Google
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has an active antitrust case against Google, accusing the tech giant of abusing its dominance in digital market technology to siphon revenue from publishers and advertisers. The closing arguments in this case are scheduled for November 25, with a final ruling expected early next year. Separately, a federal judge ruled in August that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over online search.
