Google has threatened to remove its search engine from Australia. This comes after the nation’s attempt to make the tech giant share royalties with news publishers.
It is no news that social media has for many years now been making money out of unpaid news content. The WhatsApp news forwards and Facebook news feed form a strong base for the news briefing for general public.
Australia is introducing a world-first law to make Google, Facebook and other tech companies who use news media sources’ content to pay them for their news content.
The News Media Bargaining Code, would allow news companies to negotiate with tech giants for the content that appears on their news feeds and search results.
However, the argument that the Australian government presents states that since the tech giants gain customers from people who want to read the news, they should definitely pay the resource owners of the content, their due.
Moreover, this is being done to improve the falling revenues of the media houses. It has been reported that media houses revenue has almost halved in the past decade due to the digital revolution. So much so that the news publication houses during COVID-19 pandemic had to request its subscribers to support them.
During the same time, it has been noted that google has shored up its revenues amounting to a hefty $4billion. In addition to this the media houses have demanded the tech giants to pay at least 10% of the revenue earned from Australia. This compensation that has been sought for, would amount to $600 million, a high amount to be paid by the tech giants. On the other hand, google emphatically claims that in 2019, it only earned $7.7 million from Australian news content and don’t see the prospects of compensation.
The claims by media houses come across as justified. This is due to the fact that digital revolution has served several tech giants favorably in the past decade. These selected tech giants have in actuality enjoyed the perks of unregulated data to be used and circulated. This certainly has led them to gain monopoly in certain areas they were not designated for. For example, Facebook which started as an entertainment and connecting site, in the present scenario is an ideal and, in many cases, the sole source of news content for people who do not feel the need to consult other news media outlets, as their demand is met.
Moreover, unregulated data being used by the Facebook and WhatsApp has led to the rise of fake news and misinformation in the society. The authenticity and credibility of news is often lost when it is shared unregulated by tech giants for revenue and not for accuracy and authentic purposes.
This threat hasn’t been born well by the tech giants as the US firms have fought back, warning the law would make them withdraw some of their services. Australian PM Scott Morrison has retreated that lawmakers would not yield to “threats”.
Given the fact that Australia is far from Google’s largest market, the proposed news code can be seen as a possible global test case for how governments wish to regulate big tech firms.
The rising surge for compensation has led to tech firms facing increasing pressure to pay for news content in other countries, including France, where Google acquiesced and struck a landmark deal with media outlets.
In Australia, the proposed news code would tie Google and Facebook to have negotiations with publishers over the value of news content, if no agreement could be reached first.
Google Australia managing director Mel Silva stated that the laws were “unworkable”.
“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,” she said.
As a form of retaliation, google blocked Australian news sites from its search results for about 1% of local users till February. Tech giants fear that such negotiations will set a precedent for the other nations to follow the suit. Now where this case and Google’s series of threats head to, is still a mystery.