Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it’s “inevitable” that Google and other tech behemoths will have to eventually pay for using media content, responding to the internet giant’s threat to disable its search engine in the country if it’s forced to pay local publishers for new.
Google threatens to pull search due to Australian plan
Bloomberg
Google yesterday threatened to disable its search engine in Australia if it is forced to pay local publishers for news.
A proposed law, intended to compensate publishers for the value their stories generate for the company, is “unworkable,” Mel Silva, managing director for Google Australia and New Zealand, told an Australian parliamentary hearing.
She specifically opposed the requirement that Google pay media companies for displaying snippets of articles in search results.
The Google home page is displayed on a screen in Sydney yesterday.
Photo: Bloomberg
The threat is Google’s most potent yet as the digital giant tries to stem a flow of regulatory action worldwide, but such a radical step would hand an entire developed market to rivals.