Google on Friday threatened to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government continued its plans to make the tech giants pay for news content.
The government’s proposed code of conduct aims to get Google and Facebook to pay Australian media companies fairly for using the news content they extract from news sites.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded quickly by saying “we are not responding to threats”.
“Australia is setting its own rules for things that can be done in Australia,” Morrison added in comments to Brisbane reporters. “It simply came to our notice then. Our government does. That’s how it works here in Australia. “
Morrison spoke after Mel Silva, chief executive of Google Australia and New Zealand, said during a virtual appearance before the Senate about the bill that the new rules would be ineffective.
“If this version of the code were to become law, we would have no choice but to stop making Google searches available in Australia,” Silva told senators. “And it would be a bad thing not only for us, but also for the Australian people, the diversity of the media and the small businesses that use our products every day.”
Silva said Google is willing to pay a large and diverse group of news editors for the value they have added, but not according to the proposed rules, which included payments for links and snippets.
He said the code’s “biased arbitrage model” also poses unmanageable financial and operational risks for Google. The executive suggested a number of adjustments to the bill. “We believe there is a viable path to follow,” Silva said.
As in many other countries, Google dominates Internet searches in Australia. Silva told senators that about 95% of searches in the country are done through Google.