Google began removing California news websites from some of its search results in response to a proposal that would force the tech giant and others to pay media companies for linking to their stories.
In a Friday blog post, Google called its decision a "short-term test " and said it was "also pausing further investments in the California news ecosystem."
The moves came in response to the California Journalism Preservation Act, which would require companies including Google, Facebook and Microsoft to give news organizations a share of their ad revenue that opponents call a "link tax," according to the Associated Press.
The amounts would be decided through arbitration involving a three-judge panel, AP said.
California's state Assembly passed the bill last year with bipartisan support and it needs to pass the state Senate later this year and be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to become law.
In the blog post, Jaffer Zaidi, vice president of Google's global news partnerships, said the company's search engine helped "publishers of all sizes grow their audiences at no cost to them."
"CJPA would up-end that model," Zaidi wrote. "It would favor media conglomerates and hedge funds - who've been lobbying for this bill -a nd could use funds from CJPA to continue to buy up local California newspapers, strip them of journalists, and create more ghost papers that operate with a skeleton crew to produce only low-cost, and often low-quality, content."
Zaidi added: "CJPA would also put small publishers at a disadvantage and limit consumers' access to a diverse local media ecosystem."
California State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire, a co-author of the bill, called Google's actions a "dangerous threat" and "abuse of power" that put public safety at risk.
"Let me be crystal clear: The legislative process will not be blunted by this bullying. This is a breach of public trust and we call on Google Executives to answer for this stunt," McGuire wrote Friday evening on X, formerly Twitter.
The bill's author, Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, told AP that California had lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade.
"This is a bill about basic fairness - it's about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose," Wicks said. "We are committed to continuing negotiations with Google and all other stakeholders to secure a brighter future for California journalists and ensure that the lights of democracy stay on."
Nationwide, more than 2,500 newspapers have closed since 2005, AP said, citing information from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
Meanwhile, Google's corporate parent, Alphabet, reported more than $307 billion in revenues last year, mostly from advertising, according to NPR.
