Google threatens to withdraw search engine from Australia
- by Claude Bryan
- in Markets
- — Jan 23, 2021
Google is now threatening to disable its popular search engine over in Australia if the company is forced to pay the local publishers for the news in a dramatic escalation with the government.
"We don't respond to threats".
Google alleges that the Code also has an unfair arbitration process and that the 14-day algorithm notification required (under Section 52S, 52T, and 52U) will give news publishers special treatment.
Meanwhile, as CNN reports, yesterday Google agreed to pay news publications in France for use of their content. Google will now negotiate licensing agreements with individual publishers and compensate them based on a set of criteria.
Google Australia managing director Mel Silva warned a Senate committee in Canberra that the world-first media law was "unworkable" and would undermine the functioning of the internet.
But lawmakers challenged this, accusing Google of "blackmail" and bullying Australia for raising the reform.
Independent senator Rex Patrick was critical of Google's "threat", comparing the company to China.
She said the code's "biased arbitration model" also posed unmanageable financial and operational risks for Google.
Google has announced it is considering pulling out its search engine from Australia, following a law dispute with the country's government. From an advertiser's perspective, why pay for an ad with Rupert Murdoch's the Australian newspaper, the country's largest daily, when you can pay a platform like Facebook or Google that's presenting the news and capturing user eyeballs for a more extended period of time?
"We don't respond to threats", he told reporters in Brisbane.
Why is Australia pushing this law?
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) estimates Google accounts for around 95 per cent of search traffic. "And people who want to work with that in Australia are very welcome".
Australian print media has recorded a 75 percent decline in advertising revenue since 2005, which had led to several news outlets either shutting down or resorting to job cuts and downscaling of operations.
However, this decision has not gone well with the search engines, especially Google.
Google has called the code overly broad and said that without revisions, offering even a limited search tool would be too risky.
Australia is nowhere near its biggest market.
Google's proposed solution to the situation is through the Google News Showcase, which is a licensing program through which news businesses publish and promote their stories online.
Google says it wants to help fund original, local journalism. It had then stopped showing news results that came from European publishers on their search results for the french users a year ago.
Facebook has likewise threatened to remove the ability to see or post news for its users in Australia.
The social media giant repeated that position on Friday, with executive Simon Milner telling the Senate hearing it was "a potential worse-case consequence".
Google and Facebook are definitely not happy. "They're signalling to other regulators they'll have a fight on their hands if they do this".
She also added that while this is not a favourable move, the company is not left with much choice.
