Media executives' Google revolt: 'We demand a fair and free competitive environment'

Halktv.com.tr Editor-in-Chief Ercüment İşleyen, Kısa Dalga Editor-in-Chief Kemal Göktaş, Cumhuriyet.com.tr News Manager Can Uğur, Birgun.net Managing Editor Uğur Koç, Bursamuhalif.com Managing Editor Ozan Kaplanoğlu, and Evrensel newspaper's information technology writer İsmail Gökhan Bayram shared their views on the matter. Sözcü issued a written statement.

According to Journo's News Consumer Survey, the most important digital channels for accessing news in Turkey are news websites and the Google search engine. Data from this year's Journo News Watcher revealed that Google prioritizes pro-government media 81% of the time and that fake news is also among the content it recommends.

According to the data, the Google algorithm does not reflect the diversity of Turkish media, directing half of all news-related searches to just 13 sites. Since both Google and the recommended news organization earn advertising revenue from every click on these search results, the issue also has an economic dimension.

The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google last month due to its monopolistic practices. Google has also paid billions of euros in fines in the European Union to date on the grounds that its search engine algorithm is biased.

With "blackouts" according to Sözcü and "censorship" according to Halk TV, the reaction against Google has begun to grow in Turkey as well. During August, first Sözcü and then Halk TV harshly criticized the practices of this US-based company in Turkey. Many news organizations that produce independent and impartial journalism with more limited economic resources have also begun to raise their voices. Journalists are also reacting to the fact that Google continues to prioritize "copy-paste" content instead of original journalism in Turkey, despite promising to do so 4 years ago.

Consumers are fed up with Google prioritizing a few news sites that are low-quality, clickbait-oriented, and resort to search engine optimization (SEO) tricks in almost every type of search. We spoke with independent media executives and journalists who closely follow the issue about the Google algorithm, which continues to have negative effects on the news media ecosystem in Turkey as of October 2023.

Ercüment İşleyen: Google is a partner to pro-government media in need of economic support

Halktv.com.tr Editor-in-Chief Ercüment İşleyen said, "Google generally prioritizes establishing good relationships with authorities and central administrations in its country organizations. This results in Google, which we can consider a monopoly, interfering in media relations between the government and society."

İşleyen continued his words as follows:

It is no secret that media outlets in our country, especially those close to the government, need economic support due to the problems they face in terms of viewership, readership, and following. By implementing controversial protocols in its algorithms regarding news recommendations in Turkey, Google is also acting as an intermediary for pro-government media organizations to receive a larger share of the advertising pie. This stands before media freedom as a problem that is growing like a snowball, not just today but in the future as well.

Kemal Göktaş: Google's monopoly is a serious handicap for journalists

Kısa Dalga Editor-in-Chief Kemal Göktaş said, "Beyond the quality of our own content, we are also dealing with various external factors. The fact that pro-government media outlets are shown at the top of Google search results is at the forefront of these problems. The fact that Google has a monopoly in this field is a serious handicap for journalists. The control tools in the digital world are in their hands," and added: Content that does not fall within the scope of journalism on the internet is being prioritized by Google. This si