Australian regulation ‘threatens free search services’

Google vows to fight plans to make it pay for news content

Google has used an open letter to claim that proposed regulation will ‘hurt how Australians use Google Search and YouTube’, reports the Financial Times. Mel Silva, Google’s Australian Managing Director, goes on to say that the law ‘could lead to your data being handed over to big news businesses’. The claims are a response to proposals from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in which digital platforms would be required to pay media groups whose content they carry. The paper reveals that Google’s news licensing programme, where payments are made to certain publishers, has now been suspended. Rod Sims, chair of the ACCC, responded by saying that Google’s letter contained ‘misinformation’ about the new law, which was designed to address a ‘significant bargaining power imbalance’. Read more