Below its home page’s search bar, Google is now warning everyone in Australia ominously that “The way Aussies search every day on Google is at risk from new Government regulation.” For more emphasis, Google even added the “hazard sign” symbol — a yellow triangle with an exclamation point, reports Gizmodo. “And in case you missed that, the website has also added a famously popular pop-up prompt that comes up during a search.” After a year and a half of investigating, the ACCC, affectionately known as Australia’s consumer watchdog, published a report last year that found that digital platforms had significant bargaining powers. News publishers, on the other hand, were a lot less powerful and this imbalance had significant adverse affects… In April this year, the Australian government asked Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC, to create some rules for a negotiation between news publishers and tech platforms… It laid out a process for negotiation and requirements that the platforms give more information to publishers… In the letter, Google’s ANZ Director Mel Silva claims that the code places free services — like Search, Gmail, Youtube — “at risk”, seemingly implying that these services will be affected or may be discontinued if the draft code goes through. “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,” she wrote… In adding these warnings, the company is using its real estate on Australia’s most visited website as a way to push back against negotiations that could force it to pay for its dominance.
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https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/17/0454226/google-warns-australians-it-really-doesnt-want-to-pay-for-news?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed