Soon Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded, claiming this We do not respond to threats
.
Australia sets the rules for what you can do in Australia
He told reporters in Brisbane.
This is done in our Parliament. It is done by our government. And this is how things work here in Australia.
His comments came after Mel Silva, CEO of Google Australia and New Zealand, told a Senate committee over the bill that the new rules would be inapplicable.
If this version of the code becomes legal, it will give us no choice but to stop making Google Search Australia available.
And this would be a bad result not only for us, but also for the Australian people, the diverse media and small businesses that use our products every day.
Mel Silva added.
A mandatory code of conduct proposed by the government aims to ensure that Google and Facebook pay Australian media companies equitably for using the news content they dispose of from news sites.
Mel Silva stated that she was willing to pay money to a large variety of news publishers for the value they add, but not according to the proposed rules, which include payments for the links and entries in which the news appears. Extracts from the webpage.
She claimed that Biased arbitrage model
Also from the code is financial and operational risks that cannot be managed on Google. She proposed a series of changes to the bill.
We think there’s a way we can work it out
Mel Silva added.
As in many other countries, Google dominates internet searches in Australia. Ms Silva told senators that about 95% of searches in the country are done through Google.
When a senator asked her how much tax the company pays, she revealed that Google paid about A $ 59 million ($ 46 million) last year on revenue of $ 4.8 billion ($ 3.7 billion).
Facebook also opposes the rules and has threatened to remove the news from its Australian site. Simon Milner, Facebook’s vice president, has said the sheer volume of deals he expects to strike will not be achievable.
The Australia Institute, an independent think tank, revealed that lawmakers must stand firm against Google’s bullying.
Today’s Google testimonial is part of a pattern of threatening behavior that shakes the spine of anyone who values our democracy
Peter Lewis, one of the think tank directors, concluded.
