Big Tech has always excelled at disruption, but rarely does it disrupt an entire nations media ecosystem with such confident audacity that the victims begin to wonder whether they are witnessing aggression or innovation. Yet this is exactly what is unfolding in the United Kingdom, where Google has quietly throttled news visibility, restricted publishers reach, and effectively placed an entire national information system under a form of algorithmic hostage negotiation.
If this seems shocking, it shouldnt. Google has perfected this dance for years: embrace publishers, feed them traffic, slowly withdraw the oxygen, then toss periodic innovation grants like a benevolent emperor sprinkling coins to calm starving peasants. What once looked like algorithmic indifference now appears more like deliberate pressure-a flex disguised as experimentation.
