Google threatens to remove search engine services in Australia over digital news code

American multinational technology company, Google on January 22  threatened to remove its search engine from Australia if the government goes ahead with its plans to make all the tech giants pay for the news content. Saying that it is the ‘last thing’ that Google wants to happen especially when ‘there’s another way’, Google’s Australian managing director, Mel Silva has said that the proposed news code was untenable and would set a “dangerous precedent” for paying for the links.

Meanwhile, Facebook has already threatened to remove news from its feed for all Australians if a code forcing the companies to negotiate payments to news media moves forward.

The ultimatum that reportedly Google delivered to the Australian government on January 22, if implied would reportedly mean that the 19 million citizens in the country who use the search engine every month would not be able to search. Further, the 17 million Australians who log into Facebook every month would also be unable to see any post with news articles.

Both Facebook and Google are tackling against the legislation which is before the Australian parliament and would force the digital platforms to strike an agreement with the news media companies to pay for the content. It is with an arbiter to ultimately pay the amount of no agreement is reached. 

In an open letter, Silva wrote, “The ability to link freely between websites is fundamental to Search. This code creates an unreasonable and unmanageable financial and operational risk to our business. If the Code were to become law in its current form, we would have no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia.”

“That is the last thing I or Google want to have happen—especially when there is a way forward that allows us to support Australian journalism without breaking Search. We think that would be a bad outcome not just for us, but for the millions of people and businesses across Australia who use Google Search every day,” she added.

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Australian PM rejects threats

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has swiftly rejected all the threats by tech giants and said, “we don’t respond to threats”. As per The Associated Press report, he further told the reporters in Brisbane that, “Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia...That’s done in our Parliament. It’s done by our government. And that’s how things work here in Australia.”

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