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Google's threat is another step in a dispute over a planned media law
Photo: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / AFP
In response to a planned media law, Google is threatening to shut down its search engine in Australia.
According to government plans, Google and Facebook should pay local media companies in the future when they distribute their content.
The project is not feasible and involves financial risks for Google that cannot be calculated, said Mel Silva, the managing director for Google's activities in Australia, at a hearing in the Senate on Friday.
According to Google's interpretation, due to the vague definitions in the draft, the company should expect to be asked to pay for even pure links and the display of short text excerpts (called snippets).
Leaving the Australian market was "the only rational decision if this law were to be passed," emphasized Silva.
She compared paying media companies to show links to their content to recommending cafes to a friend and then getting a bill from the cafes for mentioning them.
"If you set a price for linking to certain information, then the way search engines work is broken and you no longer have a free and open web."
Morrison: "We don't respond to threats"
If the bill is passed, Google and Facebook would have to pay broadcasters and publishers for their content in the future.
Otherwise, according to Australian media reports, there are fines of up to ten million Australian dollars (6.3 million euros).
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his administration would not be intimidated by threats.
“Let me be clear: Australia sets the rules for things you can do in Australia.
(...) That's how things work here in Australia. "He added:" We don't respond to threats. "
In France, Google and publishers set common criteria for compensation this week.
A corresponding agreement had been signed, it said in a joint press release from Google and the publishers association L'Alliance de la presse d'information général on Thursday.
Accordingly, Google should now negotiate individual contracts that are based on the established lines.
The remuneration should depend, for example, on the daily volume of publications and the number of monthly Internet users of the publications.
Specifically, the point is that Google should pay publishers money for displaying excerpts from media content.
The background to the dispute is an EU copyright amendment passed in 2019, which aims to adapt the outdated copyright law in the EU to the digital age and to ensure that authors receive better remuneration for their online content.
Google initially refused to make such payments.
The group then suffered a defeat at the Paris Court of Appeal last autumn.
In Germany, the federal government has not yet adopted a draft to implement the EU reform - the SPD and the Union have not yet been able to agree on several points.
However, the directive must be transposed into national law by June.
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