Latin origin legislators on Tuesday asked Google to stop their plan to charge fifteen extra dollars to access Univision and Telemundo on YouTube, the largest channels in Spanish in the United States, considering that it is a “tax for Hispanics”.
“Google/YouTube needs to reach an agreement with Univision and Telemundo to ensure that its programming is not behind an expensive payment wall, forcing many Americans to pay more for news and programming in Spanish,” said Mario Díaz-Balart, Federal Republican representative of Miami, on their social networks.
For his part, Senator Bernie Moreno, a Republican for Ohio, sent a letter to the general director of Google, SUCTAL PICHAI, to demand that he clarify why he will implement the collection, which would affect about ten million subscribers, according to the legislator, who accused the company of “silencing means on which millions of Hispanics depend”.
“Google is effectively implemented 18% to millions of Hispanic clients, or worse, it is denying access to services in a way that could indicate serious violations of antitrust standards,” said Moreno in his letter.
The legislators reactions occur after the last week of the ‘Do the Right Thing, Google’ campaign (do the right thing, Google), in which Televisaunivision denounces the “discriminatory” plan to remove univision of the main YouTube TV package and charge an additional 18 % to keep access.
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The director of the company, Daniel Alegre, said then that “Google’s plan to remove Univision of YouTube TV on September 30 is an unacceptable threat to millions of Hispanic homes.”
The measure has aroused the support of Republican legislators of Hispanic origin, such as Díaz-Balart, Moreno and Senator Texano, Ted Cruz, who now pointed out that “Google should not be abusing its monopoly power to force millions of Texans and American to pay extra for programming in Spanish.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also sent a letter to Google in which he said that YouTube is “punishing” Univision for “a political calculation.”
“Univision was one of the only platforms that offered to sponsor a public assembly for the then candidate Donald Trump (in 2024). That was a laudable decision and, to the extent that YouTube TV is now using market power to punish it, said reprisal will not be tolerated,” Paxton warned.
With EFE information.
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