UK media websites given power to block Google using their articles in AI search
UK media publishers will now have the ability to opt out of having their content used in Google AI search summaries. This decision comes from the Competition and Markets Authority, which aims to enhance publishers' control over their content and improve negotiation power with Google. Additionally, Google must ensure proper attribution of publisher content in AI-generated search results.
- ▪Publishers can opt out of their content being used to train Google's AI models.
- ▪The Competition and Markets Authority has imposed new conduct requirements on Google.
- ▪Google is required to properly attribute publisher content in AI-generated search results.
2 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 6 hours. All of the coverage we found sits in one bucket: centre. That one-sidedness is itself worth noticing.
The Guardian — World publishes from United Kingdom and files mainly under world. We currently carry 2,544 of its stories.
Story provenance
Source · retrieval · rights · ranking — open for full record
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Story provenance
Attribution is not the same as permission. This drawer separates discovery metadata, excerpts, WeSearch-generated summaries, reuse status, and whether the publisher receives the visit. Nothing here claims a legal grant the publisher has not made.
Record
| Original publisher | World news | The Guardian |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/03/uk-media-groups-power-opt-out-google-ai-search-summaries |
| Publication time | Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:43:52 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-06-03T06:26:57.143Z |
| Last seen | 2026-06-03T09:04:33.302Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | HB0MCD9i6Jwi · 2 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Publishers will gain control over use of their content in Google AI search functions. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/APView image in fullscreenPublishers will gain control over use of their content in Google AI search functions. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/APCompetition and Markets AuthorityUK media groups given power to opt out of Google AI search summariesWatchdog says ‘publishers will now have effective tools to prevent content being used to power AI features in search’Guardian staff and agenciesWed 3 Jun 2026 02.23 EDTLast modified on Wed 3 Jun 2026 02.26 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GooglePublishers will be able to opt out of their content being used to train Google’s AI models and power its search summaries, the UK competition watchdog has announced as it imposes new conduct requirements on…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at World news | The Guardian.
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