AI Overviews: Media watchdogs target Google and Perplexity

Where an internet search used to be a list of blue underlined links paving the way to various sources, services like Google and the specialized AI search engine Perplexity are increasingly presenting pre-formulated summaries (“AI Overviews”). But what may seem convenient for users is increasingly alarming German media regulators.

According to information from the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, the media authority Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb) and the state media authority NRW (LfM) already initiated official administrative proceedings against the two tech giants in mid-January. This is a first. This move brings the question to the forefront of whether and how algorithmically generated answers could manipulate or narrow public opinion.

At the core of the investigation, according to the report, is the concern for media diversity. When chatbots merge information from various sources into a monolithic text, the origin of the news often becomes secondary. More and more users are informing themselves directly through such summaries.

Fear of “Zero-Click Scenario”

The authorities now want to clarify who bears the journalistic and legal responsibility for these AI-generated content. Perplexity, in particular, is under scrutiny here, as the company treats external websites more as footnotes than as independent destinations. However, Google is also pushing into this market with its AI Overviews. On smartphones, these summaries often occupy the entire visible area, pushing the classic search results into the lower, hardly noticed area.

This trend fuels the fear of the “zero-click scenario”: If the AI serves up the answer ready-made, the user no longer needs to click on the creator's website. Initial studies indicate massive reach losses for publishers and information providers.

Google denies a direct connection between the new AI overviews and declining click numbers. However, pressure is increasing from the legal side. The Frankfurt Regional Court recently clarified in a decision that erroneous AI information cannot simply be dismissed as a technical oversight. If an AI spreads false information about companies, this can be considered anti-competitive obstruction. This gives affected companies a sharp sword from antitrust law to take action against the “hallucinations” of algorithmic systems through injunctions.

Search Engines as Super-Editorial Offices?

The legal basis for the media authorities' actions includes the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). It obliges large platforms to assess and minimize systemic risks to freedom of expression and media pluralism in advance. Google and Perplexity now have a few weeks to comment on the allegations. A dispute over competence is already emerging: Google fundamentally questions the jurisdiction of the German media watchdogs and refers to the EU Commission and the Irish data protection authority as primary contact points. The EU Commission is currently investigating itself whether Google's AI has stolen third-party content.

As early as October, the state media authorities jointly complained based on an expert opinion: “AI-based search answers create new content and displace established information sources.” This has “far-reaching consequences for the visibility of journalistic offerings, the refinancing of media, and the diversity of online information.” Traffic losses for publishers and broadcasters threaten the refinancing of content production, “which is essential for a diverse information landscape.”

Whether the German regulators can prevail with their initiative depends primarily on how closely the interplay between national media and European platform law is interpreted in the future. The carte blanche for AI experiments at the expense of publishers has certainly come under fire. The proceedings mark the beginning of a debate about whether search engines must remain merely neutral intermediaries or whether, by creating their own content, they are becoming a new form of super-editorial office subject to stricter oversight.

(dahe)