Google closing Russian engineering hub, Spanish news service
Google is dealing with international issues on multiple fronts, based on reports in the Wall Street Journal. First, the company is closing its engineering office in Russia. Alistair Barr in the Journal suggests the move may be prompted by a law taking effect next year that requires information on Russian citizens to be stored on data centers in Russia and that will penalize web firms for infringing on personal data rules.
Barr writes that a Google spokesperson declined to say why the company was closing its engineering facility or how many employees were affected.
Barr adds that Google will retain employees in Russia focused on sales, support, and marketing. He quotes the spokesperson as saying, “We are deeply committed to our Russian users and customers and we have a dedicated team in Russia working to support them.”
In related news, Google plans to close its news service in Spain, removing Spanish publishers from Google News. The move comes before a law goes into effect that would establish payment requirements between publishers and aggregators.*
Barr and Roman write, “The Spanish law is the latest broadside in Europe aimed at curbing the influence of Google and a small cadre of U.S.-based Internet superpowers. French and German politicians have proposed new regulations for such companies, and there is increasing pressure in the European Union to pursue sanctions against Google amid complaints that it has abused its dominant position among web-search engines.”
Update: Tyler Lopez writing in Slate elaborates on the relationship between Google and publishers in Spain: “Google News, responsible for aggregating news media and making it searchable for users, will soon become unavailable in Spain. The reason why is maddening: Starting Jan. 1, recently enacted Spanish legislation will require the search giant to pay the publications it links to. For previewing their articles. In addition to the article title, Google News offers a small content snippet, beckoning users to click on the link visit the news site. For that, the Spanish government believes, they should pay the publisher. You can furrow your brow and scratch your head now.”
As Lopez points out, this is like an old-fashioned newsstand being required to pay a publisher to display its magazine or newspaper.
*Clarification: This paragraph in my original post was based on this sentence from the Journal: “Google Inc. plans to shut its news service in Spain before a new law requiring publishers to charge the company for displaying their content comes into effect—opening a fresh front in the company’s multiple regulatory and legal battles in Europe.” My paragraph has been updated.
