Yandex biasedly composes its news tops, says a complaint sent to the FAS
According to the REGNUM editorial office, Yandex, which is a de facto monopolist of the online media market , manipulates the rating in its Top Yandex.News service, creating privileged conditions for the same media, thereby systematically violating the law “On Protection of Competition ", Reports the agency" Red Spring ".
Peter Danilov, IA Red Spring
In support of its complaint, the REGNUM editorial board cites the results of a study conducted over 43 days from November 15 to December 27, 2017, and collecting 4118 measurements of the Top 5 Yandex.News service.
The study, in particular, indicates that the entire service uses the news of 335 different media outlets, of which 275 (82%) are found in the “top” only in 2% of the measurements, and 237 (71%) - in less than 1% of the measurements received. Thus, an observer, when accessing any news from the Top 5 service, in 100% of cases, will see on the page with the news itself links to four of the most “privileged” news agencies, and in 95% of cases - links to three slightly less “privileged »Agencies.
That is, in fact, 7 of 9 positions of the Yandex.News service, which are presented to the visitor as an objective means of selecting the most relevant news with the help of so-called robots, working according to specified algorithms, will be in advance occupied.
Moreover, as a REGNUM editorial staff explains, the arguments of the developers of the Top 5 Yandex.News service about the existence of objective criteria for building a “top” are simply untenable, since it is statistically improbable that an empirically proven fact 100% fall into the “top” news of a specific information agency . So, they make a conclusion in the REGNUM editorial office that the “top” of news is formed not so much by using objective criteria, which, by the way, have not been disclosed by “Yandex”, but by some “weight” of the media, which, apparently, by man.
Thus, based on a detailed statistical study of the “Top 5 Yandex.News” service, the REGNUM editors request the FAS to recognize the actions of Yandex LLC in forming the “News Top” as violations of Part 1 of Art. 10 and art. 14.3 of the Federal Law of July 26, 2006 N 135-ФЗ “On Protection of Competition” and issue to Yandex LLC an order to stop the violation of antitrust laws and prohibit the transfer of the Top News to the main search page.
Peter Danilov, IA Red Spring
In support of its complaint, the REGNUM editorial board cites the results of a study conducted over 43 days from November 15 to December 27, 2017, and collecting 4118 measurements of the Top 5 Yandex.News service.
The study, in particular, indicates that the entire service uses the news of 335 different media outlets, of which 275 (82%) are found in the “top” only in 2% of the measurements, and 237 (71%) - in less than 1% of the measurements received. Thus, an observer, when accessing any news from the Top 5 service, in 100% of cases, will see on the page with the news itself links to four of the most “privileged” news agencies, and in 95% of cases - links to three slightly less “privileged »Agencies.
That is, in fact, 7 of 9 positions of the Yandex.News service, which are presented to the visitor as an objective means of selecting the most relevant news with the help of so-called robots, working according to specified algorithms, will be in advance occupied.
Moreover, as a REGNUM editorial staff explains, the arguments of the developers of the Top 5 Yandex.News service about the existence of objective criteria for building a “top” are simply untenable, since it is statistically improbable that an empirically proven fact 100% fall into the “top” news of a specific information agency . So, they make a conclusion in the REGNUM editorial office that the “top” of news is formed not so much by using objective criteria, which, by the way, have not been disclosed by “Yandex”, but by some “weight” of the media, which, apparently, by man.
Thus, based on a detailed statistical study of the “Top 5 Yandex.News” service, the REGNUM editors request the FAS to recognize the actions of Yandex LLC in forming the “News Top” as violations of Part 1 of Art. 10 and art. 14.3 of the Federal Law of July 26, 2006 N 135-ФЗ “On Protection of Competition” and issue to Yandex LLC an order to stop the violation of antitrust laws and prohibit the transfer of the Top News to the main search page.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/410173/