In a Senate hearing, and later in a video, Google Australia’s Managing Director, Mel Silva, said that the proposed media law “would break how Google search works.”
— googledownunder (@googledownunder) January 22, 2021 In a blog post, Silva said this law will hinder unrestricted linking of webpages and the company will have to stop its search service in the country: All of this started in 2019 when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) began to form a voluntary code to bring parity between media organizations and tech companies such as Google and Facebook. Last year, the federal government ordered ACCC to draw up a mandatory version of it. The Australian government’s argument is that big tech benefits from surfacing news links on their platforms. While Google says it just displays news links and leaves it to the user to choose which site to visit. In response to Google’s threat to leave the country, the Prime Minister said that the company has to play by the laws: The search giant has repeatedly said and it’s already ready to accept a code that doesn’t break user search and pay media organizations under the Google Showcase program. The company claims to serve over 19 million Australians every year, and the company’s pullout would have a sizable impact on the country’s internet. It’s time for the government and the corporate to work together for user interest.
