So the Australian media complain when Google ‘takes news without paying for it’, and they are now complaining when Google doesn’t take it for free?
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Surely this code won’t go ahead when the biggest loser out of the deal will be Sky News Australia?
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I think they’ll still forge ahead - it will be interesting to see if the US maintain their objection after the change in leader
The first of two Senate Economics Legislation Committee hearings into the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code will be held today from 10am AEDT. The Senators will hear from Facebook, Google, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, government agencies and news media organisations.
Google says it will have no choice but to make Google Search unavailable in Australia if the government succeeds in implementing its new media code forcing big tech companies to pay for Australian news content.
In a massive escalation of its opposition, Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Mel Silva said the trillion-dollar US firm would no longer allow Australians to use its search engine if the government enacted the news media bargaining code as proposed.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found Google dominated web search traffic in Australia, estimating that it handles 95 per cent of internet search traffic in the country.
Without Google search, Australian internet users could be forced to use alternatives including Microsoft’s Bing, privacy-focused offering DuckDuckGo and Yahoo!
Google, Facebook: Senate inquiry kicks off into news bargaining code
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Good luck to them. No problem using the alternatives - I already use Bing for my searching anyway. Stick your threats up your arse Google.
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I don’t think it is as simple as switching to another search engine as the article suggests. The code would call for similar payment schemes to be mandated no matter how news was searched for.
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File that in the ‘that’s not going to happen’ category - there’s just too much money that Google would lose by going down the nuclear option path
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Making Google search engine unavailable in Australia will also make the Chrome browser, the Pixel mobile phones, and the Chromebook computer obsolete, as they all heavily rely on it. Will Google risk losing its share in the ultra competitive mobile market by disabling the search function on Pixel?
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Opera uses Google Search, so I wonder if that would also be affected.
Would Google do a hard lockdown so it would be impossible to use Google Search on any device in Australia even if someone used a VPN to pretend they were somewhere else in the world? I’m guessing they would.
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A Google Australia ad on Twitter today:
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It will be a massive blow for many.
Bing sucks. The search results are just shocking.
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The government could just say they will encourage a new operator to replace Google, if that’s the way they want to play it.
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I’m not so sure about that - walking away (even temporarily) in a market like Australia sends a pretty strong message to other countries considering similar action. The difficulty is that its such a niche thing that they are fighting over that the broader populous wont be interested or understand whats going on either.
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Meanwhile this is a nice analysis of the reality of the traditional media’s argument:
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“Let me be clear, Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia. That’s done in our Parliament,” the Prime Minister said. “It’s done by our government and that’s how things work here in Australia, and people who want to work with that, in Australia, you’re very welcome. But we don’t respond to threats.”
Hmm, nice simplified explanation of the law-making process by Scomo there 
I’m sure that Google will appreciate it.
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The ABC welcomes the Government’s decision to include the ABC and SBS in the bargaining and arbitration arrangements on remuneration under the Code.
Where digital platforms are deriving value from the use of ABC news content on their platforms, the ABC and taxpayers have a legitimate interest in ensuring that a portion of that value is reinvested into ABC journalism.
The ABC has publicly committed to reinvesting any additional revenue derived from negotiations under the Code directly into its regional services.
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