International Business News: Google and Facebook are "very close" to deals with major Australian media to pay for news, a top government official said Monday, as the tech giants s
‘Chairman Mao Would Have Approved’: Critics Liken Big Tech to CCP
Critics of Google and Facebook have compared the tech giants’ recent actions to the behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the long-running dispute over an Australian media payment law continues.
Last month, Google Australia floated the idea of pulling its search service from the country, sparking a hostile response from Independent Senator Rex Patrick, who likened the tech giant’s threat to Beijing’s ongoing trade war with Australia.
“I would just like to take you back to the prime minister announcing that Australia would like to see an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. The Chinese response to that was to threaten our market, to threaten our trade,” Patrick told Google Australia Managing Director Mel Silva during a Senate committee hearing into the Code.
By Shawn Lim-01 February 2021 01:00am
While it is unlikely Google will follow through with their threat, publishers and advertisers are already preparing for a shift
Google has threatened to pull its search engine out of Australia, but the government is refusing to back down. The Drum explores what this means for advertisers, publishers and consumers.
The Centre for Responsible Technology has found that Google accounts for 51% of all online advertising in Australia while the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) notes that over 90% of online searches currently occur through Google.
Google has already blocked Australian news sites from its search results for about 1% of local users, officially announcing this exercise as a test run, with the intention to provide a preview of the effect a change like this could deliver, should the code become law in its current form.