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WORLD NEWS Saturday 23 January 2021

Google threatens to pull search engine in Australia

By NICK PERRY much tax it pays, Silva said
Associated Press last year it paid about 59
WELLINGTON, New Zealand million Australian dollars
(AP) — Google on Friday ($46 million) on revenues of
threatened to make its AU$4.8 billion ($3.7 billion).
search engine unavailable Facebook also opposes
in Australia if the govern- the rules and has threat-
ment went ahead with ened to remove news sto-
plans to make tech giants ries from its site in Australia.
pay for news content. Simon Milner, a Facebook
Australian Prime Minister vice president, said the
Scott Morrison quickly hit sheer volume of deals it
back, saying "we don't re- would have to strike would
spond to threats." be unworkable.
"Australia makes our rules The Australia Institute, an in-
for things you can do in dependent think tank, said
Australia," Morrison told re- lawmakers should stand
porters in Brisbane. firm against Google's bully-
"That's done in our Parlia- ing. q
ment. It's done by our gov-
ernment. And that's how Mel Silva, left, the managing director of Google Australia and
New Zealand, appears via a video link during a Senate inquiry
things work here in Austra- into a mandatory code of conduct proposed by the govern-
lia." ment at Parliament House in Canberra, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021.
The confrontation high- Associated Press
lights Australia's leading
role in the global move- Google and Facebook price for news, an arbitra-
ment to push back against pay Australian media com- tion panel would make a
the outsize influence of U.S. panies fairly for using news binding decision on pay-
tech giants over the news content the tech giants si- ment.
business. phon from news sites. Silva said Google was will-
Morrison's comments came Google has faced pressure ing to pay a wide and di-
after Mel Silva, the manag- from authorities elsewhere verse group of news pub-
ing director of Google Aus- to pay for news. lishers for the value they
tralia and New Zealand, On Thursday, it signed a added, but not under the
told a Senate inquiry into deal with a group of French rules as proposed, which
the bill that the new rules publishers paving the way included payments for links
would be unworkable. for the company to make and snippets.
"If this version of the code digital copyright payments. She said the code's "biased
were to become law, Under the agreement, arbitration model" also
it would give us no real Google will negotiate indi- posed unmanageable fi-
choice but to stop making vidual licensing deals with nancial and operational
Google search available in newspapers, with pay- risks for Google. She sug-
Australia," Silva told sena- ments based on factors gested a series of tweaks to
tors. such as the amount pub- the bill.
"And that would be a bad lished daily and monthly in- "We feel there is a workable
outcome not only for us, ternet site traffic. path forward," Silva said.
but also for the Australian But Google is resisting the Like in many other coun-
people, media diversity, Australian plan because tries, Google dominates in-
and the small businesses it would have less control ternet searches in Australia.
who use our products every over how much it would Silva told senators about
day." have to pay. Under the 95% of searches in the na-
The mandatory code of Australian system, if an on- tion are done through
conduct proposed by the line platform and a news Google.
government aims to make business can't agree on a Asked by one senator how