[2] The company breaks spending into four areas:[3] However, German group Netzpolitik report that Veit Dengler, chairman of the DNI Fund Council, described it as "a PR instrument for Google to win over the European publishing industry".
In 2018, while campaigning against the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, Google encouraged members of the Initiative's working group to lobby their regional MEPs.
The private request was revealed by the Financial Times,[6] itself a recipient of grants from the Initiative,[3] and was also published in full by German group Netzpolitik.
Apologies for the delay on my side and the timing is urgent as there is a vote in the Juri committee [linked] of the European Parliament on June 20th on the Copyright directive.
Madhav Chinnappa, author of the email and "Director of News Ecosystem Development" at Google, later stated that the message had been sent in response to a request for comment by members of the working group.