Canberra, January 14: Google has been blocking Australian news sites from the local users in the country, as per reports. The US tech giant has however claimed that it was a part an 'experiment.' This comes as Australia plans implement rules forcing Facebook and Google for making payments to the media organisations whose content the tech firms host on their platforms or pay massive fines. Google Temporarily Blocks Access to Chinese Apps Banned by India on Play Store.

According to a report in the Australian Financial Review Google was blocking several major commercial news outlets including its masthead, News Corp papers and Guardian Australia from a small number of search users. Old links or content from other sites were reportedly appearing instead of the new content uploaded by the news portals. Google to Roll Out Privacy Labels Across iOS Apps by This Week: Report.

Google has however denied the charges and its spokesman said the changes were part of the "tens of thousands of experiments" it runs."We're currently running a few experiments that will each reach about 1 per cent of Google Search users in Australia to measure the impacts of news businesses and Google Search on each other," he said in a statement, as reported by news agency AFP.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 14, 2021 12:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).