Google threatens to suppress search in Australia as spat increases

Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg

Google has threatened to shut down its search engine in Australia if it is forced to pay local publishers for information, a dramatic escalation of a months-long standoff with the government.

The bill, intended to compensate publishers for the value their articles generate to the business, is “unworkable,” Mel Silva, managing director for Australia and New Zealand, said Friday at a hearing parliamentary. She specifically objected to requiring Google to pay media companies to display snippets of articles in search results.

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The threat is Google’s most powerful yet as the digital giant tries to stem a flow of regulatory action around the world. At least 94% of online searches in Australia go through the Alphabet Unit Inc., according to the local competition regulator.

“We are not responding to threats,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday. “Australia sets our rules for what you can do in Australia. This is done in our parliament. It is done by our government. And that’s the way things work here in Australia. “

Facebook Inc., the only other company covered by the legislation, also opposes the law. The social media platform reiterated during Friday’s hearing that it plans to block Australians from sharing information on Facebook if the law passes.

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The legislation is designed to support a local media industry, including that of Rupert Murdoch News Corp., which has struggled to adapt to the digital economy. Google’s tougher stance drew scolding from lawmakers during the hearing. Senator Andrew Bragg accused the tech giant of trying to ‘blackmail’ Australians and policy makers.

“If this version of the code becomes law, it would give us no choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia,” Silva told a panel of senators. She described the law as an “untenable financial and operational precedent”.

On Thursday, Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., Hit a deal with French media publishers after the country’s competition authority commits them to pay for the content. It had stopped displaying news results from European publishers on French users’ search results last year, in order to comply with copyright laws.

– With help from Jason Scott