Google has threatened to disable its search engine in Australia on Friday, opposing the legislation law that was proposed last year asking the tech giant to pay local publishers for their stories and the value that it adds to Google.
The law proposed by the Australian government wants to hold up the local media industry, which includes Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. that struggled to adjust to the digital economy.
Melanie Silva, the managing director, Google Australia and New Zealand, told a parliamentary hearing on Friday that it is “unworkable”. She had thoroughly opposed that Google will pay media companies for showing snippets of their stories in the Google search results. Silva had said in a hearing, “If this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia”, describing the law as “untenable financial and operational precedent” to a panel of senators, according to a NDTV report.
As Google intends to stem a flow of regulatory action worldwide, this remains Google’s strongest threat yet.
In relation to Google’s opposition, the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison said, “We don’t respond to threats…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”.
Google has also been accused of trying to blackmail Australians and policymakers by senator Andrew Bragg.
The other tech giant that the legislation is targeting is Facebook which has also opposed the law. Facebook revealed in a hearing that it considers blocking Australians from sharing news on Facebook.
