In response to Australia’s plan to launch a digital media law, the contradiction between Google and the Australian government is further escalating.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the 22nd, at the Senate hearing of the Australian Parliament on Friday, Google Australia executives made it clear that the draft Australian digital media law is “unworkable”.
If the draft is passed into law, Google “has no choice but to shut down search services in Australia”.
In response to Google’s statement, Australian Prime Minister Morrison responded harshly later that day: “What can you do in Australia is up to Australia.
You are willing to accept it, and we welcome it, but we will never accept threats.”
According to CNN, last summer, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission began to take the lead in promoting the digital media law, which allows publishers to negotiate with technology giants collectively or individually to reach a payment agreement for media content, and sets a three-month time limit for reaching a payment agreement.
However, Google proposed changes to the Australian method case, including paying more than $1 billion to media publishers to use its content over a period of three years.
Google Australia executives said that leaving Australia is Google’s last choice, and Google will not do so as long as there are other options.
Facebook executives who also attended Friday’s hearings said the Australian Method case could force Facebook to block content from Australian media publishing agencies, but also wanted to make the bill “feasible” with certain changes.
CNN said that on the 21st, Google and the General Press Union of France (APIG) jointly announced that they had reached a landmark framework agreement for the payment of copyright fees, in which news organizations could charge fees from the online platform that displayed their news abstracts.
This is the first time that the American Internet giant has reached such an agreement with a press and publishing group. According to the report, Google has been tug-of-war with traditional media publishers over payment.
In 2019, the EU comprehensively revised new copyright regulations to hold platforms such as Google and YouTube accountable for copyright infringement by their users, and also required search engines and social media platforms to share revenue with traditional publishers when displaying content.
France is the only EU country so far to translate the new copyright regulation into national law, and other EU countries are expected to promote their implementation before the deadline for the implementation of the regulations (7 June).
According to the BBC, Google is Australia’s main search engine with almost no competitors. The platform attracts many customers who want to read the news, which has a serious impact on the country’s news industry.
Since 2005, advertising revenue in traditional media has fallen by 75%.
Australian regulators believe that the bill was introduced to maintain fair competition and that strong traditional media contribute to the construction of democracy in the country.
Industry analysts who support the bill say that giants such as Google and Facebook control the Internet advertising market, and traditional media and publishing institutions can only grab the leftovers and survive.
However, it is also believed that the bill threatens Internet freedom. In addition, the media tycoon Murdoch is dominant in Australia’s traditional media field.
The Australian government’s push for a new bill to let American technology giants pay Australian publishing institutions is equivalent to benefiting Murdoch’s media empire, which has also caused a lot of controversy.
