Google Battles in Australia

Google has declared war on the Australian competition regulator after the ACCC proposed a legally enforced settlement with newspaper publishers. In a widely published advertisment the local Google MD Mel Silva “A proposed law, the News Media Bargaining Code, would force us to provide you with a dramatically worse Google Search and YouTube, could lead to your data being handed over to big news businesses, and would put the free services you use at risk in Australia.”

This has left some puzzled that Google - the $150b pa juggernaut that makes it money from exploiting other peoples content and users seach data - feels able to attack newspapers as ‘big news businesses’ that cant be trusted. The ACCC described the Google response as ‘containing misinformation’ and Australian politicians are rallying round. A further Google response has been to suspend its promised ‘Publisher Curated News’ initiative;- in effect breaking te promise to pay selected news sites. Clearly an irritated platform. Scream, toys, pram, floor.

The net effect appear to be to unite the local media and politicians in a similar fashion to the French irritation with attempts to evade a settlement. And - as in France - deadlines are now set for a major battle.