Australia proposed a new law, according to which Google is
required to pay news publishers for their content. Google responded saying that
it would take down its search engine from the country if the law goes into
effect.
VP of Google Australia and New Zealand Mel Silva told
Australia’s Senate Economics Legislation Committee that the company would have
no choice but to “stop making Google Search available in Australia.”
Google has been lobbying against Australia’s plan for months and argues that Australia’s new law would set an “untenable precedent” for its business as well as the digital economy. “It’s not compatible with how search engines work,” the company argued.
Australian Prime Minister didn’t sit back and immediately responded with a straightforward statement. “Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia. That’s done in our Parliament. It’s done by our government. And that’s how things work here in Australia,” said the Prime Minister.
Google is not the only company retaliating to Australia’s
newly proposed law, but creator of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee,
also has similar views. “The Code risks breaching a fundamental principle of
the web by requiring payment for linking between certain content online,” he said.
Back in August, when the draft of the law was formulated, Australia’s
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had said that it shouldn’t affect Google’s
search business, but clearly, Google seems to disagree with that.
Facebook is also being targeted by the ACCC and is
threatening to block its news from being shared in Australia.
