Google Protests California Bill Requiring Payments to News Outlets by Blocking Some Links, Pausing Deals

Google, which made over $73B in profit last year, is protesting a California bill that would require it to pay media outlets
The company is testing blocking links to California news sources for some users to show the "impact of the legislation"
Google is also halting new spending on news partnerships and expansions in California
This follows similar hardball tactics by Meta in response to laws requiring payments to journalism outlets
While Google has signed deals worth about $150M in Australia, that's still a tiny fraction of the $10-$12B researchers estimate it should be paying publishers