Italian publishers have gone to war with Google, accusing the tech giant of quietly siphoning readers away through its AI Overviews feature, which delivers neatly packaged summaries right above traditional search results.
The country’s leading newspaper federation, FIEG, has filed a formal complaint with national regulator Agcom, urging an investigation into whether these AI-generated snippets violate the spirit of fair competition and the rules enshrined in Europe’s Digital Services Act as reported in The Guardian.
It’s not hard to see why they’re fuming. Imagine spending days crafting an investigative piece, only for Google’s machine to boil it down to a couple of sterile lines — polished enough to keep readers from ever clicking through.
FIEG has branded this behavior “digital cannibalism,” claiming it guts ad revenue and devalues original reporting, a concern outlined in an Italian business report.
Some publishers say traffic has dropped by up to 80% when an AI Overview shows up, turning their front pages into ghost towns.
The federation isn’t acting alone — it’s coordinating with the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, pressing Brussels to step in before automated summaries become the new gatekeepers of information.
Their case argues that AI Overviews blur the line between aggregator and publisher, undermining Europe’s digital sovereignty, a point echoed in a Reuters investigation.
Google, unsurprisingly, has a different story to tell. Company representatives insist that AI Overviews “enhance discovery,” helping users find more — not less — journalism online.
The firm claims its systems drive billions of visits to publishers every day and that critics are clinging to “flawed methodology,” a defense detailed in TechCrunch’s coverage.
Still, beneath the corporate calm, there’s unease. Even supporters of AI innovation admit the balance of power has tilted sharply toward the algorithm.
What’s making publishers especially nervous is that opting out of AI Overviews can feel like career suicide — blocking your content may get you de-indexed from search entirely.
Similar frustration is spreading across the Channel, where British media groups have petitioned the Competition and Markets Authority to impose temporary curbs on AI Overviews until regulators catch up, as highlighted by industry watchdog reports.
The tension between Big Tech and media isn’t new, but this time it feels existential.
We’ve seen what happens when regulators push back — France’s competition watchdog already fined Google €250 million for similar behavior, a move chronicled in Reuters’ technology briefing.
If Italy succeeds, it could trigger a domino effect across Europe and beyond.
I can’t help but wonder if this fight is less about technology and more about trust. Google says it’s helping users.
Journalists say it’s hollowing out truth at its source. Somewhere in between those claims lies a question that’s both simple and unsettling — who gets to tell the story of the world when the storyteller is no longer human?
