AI summaries: DSA complaint by German media and NGOs against Google

Opposition to Google's AI summaries is growing: a broad alliance of media groups, associations, and non-governmental organizations from Germany has now filed a formal complaint with the Federal Network Agency. The collecting society Corint Media made this public on behalf of the alliance. The participating institutions are convinced that Google's actions violate key provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA). They therefore believe that the EU Commission, as the central platform supervisor for the DSA, must be called in to initiate proceedings against Google. Google's AI texts have "serious consequences for media diversity, freedom of expression, and democratic discourse."

Google refers to AI-generated responses to search queries, which are displayed directly in the results list and are sometimes sufficient to save the searcher another click to a possible source, as "AI Overviews." The alliance claims that the search engine company is thus creating a product that competes with journalistic and editorial content, depriving media outlets of reach and advertising revenue and thereby jeopardizing their refinancing. At the same time, however, the AI summaries are based on the very content that media companies produce and that is used to train Google's AI technology.

Agreement with media terminated

The organizations are now repeating a criticism that was also raised by a US media company at the beginning of the week. The publishing house behind world-renowned media magazines such as Rolling Stone, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter warned that tapping into website visits would have "fundamentally damaging effects on the overall quality and quantity of information available on the internet" and filed a lawsuit. It also stated that Google's actions had broken an agreement that had been in place for years. Under this agreement, media companies post content on the internet and allow Google to index it in order to provide relevant search results. In return, the search engine generates a significant number of visits to the websites. However, this is not the first dispute that has arisen over this interaction .

Corint Media now also points out that Google's AI summaries are based on proprietary technology whose functioning is not transparent. It has been shown time and again that AI technology "spreads incorrect or fabricated content," which directly contradicts the objectives of the DSA. The Digital Services Act aims to standardize liability and safety regulations for digital platforms and products, prevent the dissemination of illegal content, and better protect users. The German Journalists' Association, the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers, and the Association of German Local Newspapers and Local Media, as well as AlgorithmWatch, have now joined the request to the Federal Network Agency.

Transparency note: Corint Media also manages the copyright and ancillary copyrights of heise online, and Heise Medien is a member of the Media Association of the Free Press and the EMMA European Magazine Media Association & ENPA European Newspaper Publishers' Association, which have also joined the call.

(mho)