Turkey's competition authority announced on November 2 that it is investigating Google for possible abuse of a dominant position with AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that its Competition Board had already imposed an interim measure on October 8. Under that measure, Google must give news publishers non-discriminatory terms that reflect the economic value of using their content, and let each publisher decide how its content is used in those features without any effect on its visibility or indexing elsewhere in Google Search.
The investigation targets Alphabet, Google Ireland, Google LLC, Google International, and Google's Turkish advertising arm, and it falls under Article 6 of Act No. 4054, which prohibits abuse of a dominant position. It grew out of a preliminary inquiry opened on August 27, 2026. The features at issue are AI Overviews, the generated summaries at the top of search results, and AI Mode, the conversational search experience. Both were introduced in Turkey in February 2026, according to reports of the announcement.
The authority's concern, as reported, is that Google's use of news content in those features may discriminate among publishers and exploit their content without terms that reflect its value. The Board cited strong suspicion of discriminatory and exploitative conduct toward news publishers. That is a preliminary finding, not a final verdict. An investigation has been opened, and the interim measure is designed to prevent harm while it runs, not to declare that a violation has already been proven.
The interim measure has three requirements, and each one addresses a different publisher fear. First, Google must not discriminate among news publishers in the terms it offers for content used in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Second, those terms must reflect the economic value of using the content, rather than treating publisher content as a free input. Third, each publisher must be able to decide how its content is used in those features independently of its visibility and indexing in Google's other services.
The third requirement is the most consequential. Publishers have long feared a choice between allowing their content into AI answers and keeping their conventional search visibility. The interim measure says that choice must not be forced: a publisher that opts out of AI use should not lose its place in ordinary search. The announcement sets no compliance deadline, names no fine, and sets no payment rate, so how Google implements these requirements, and whether publishers consider the implementation sufficient, remains to be seen.
Turkey is not acting alone. The European Commission opened an investigation into AI Overviews in December 2025, French publishers filed a complaint on October 29, 2026, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority has imposed a publisher-controls requirement whose metrics arrive in Search Console in December. Turkey's move is distinctive because it has already ordered terms, on an interim basis, rather than only opening an inquiry or requiring a control. London mandated an opt-out, Brussels is still investigating, and Ankara has ordered terms that reflect economic value.
For publishers, that sequence matters. Each jurisdiction is testing a different remedy: a control, an investigation, or a commercial term. The outcomes will interact, because Google operates one global product with local variations. A remedy that works in one market may become a template elsewhere, and a remedy that fails may warn other regulators off the same approach. Publishers with an international audience should watch all three tracks, not just the one in their home market.
For SEOs, the Turkish measure is a reminder that AI search visibility is now a regulatory subject, not just a technical one. The controls publishers gain, such as the ability to opt out of AI use without losing search visibility, will change which pages appear in AI answers and which do not. Sites that depend on AI citations should track publisher-control developments in their markets, because a wave of opt-outs could change citation patterns as surely as an algorithm update.
For link builders, the story reinforces the value of original, owned content. If publishers can set terms for AI use of their work, then content that is genuinely original, well-sourced, and hard to replace becomes more valuable, not less. Links from publishers that negotiate from strength, and citations in AI answers that respect those terms, will be the durable currency. Content that merely rewords what others have already published will have neither negotiating power nor citation value.
Sources: Rekabet Kurumu announcement, November 2, 2026, as reported by PYMNTS and MACCUS.
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