Google slams Australia law forcing tech giants to pay for news
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U.S. technology giant Google continued the offensive Monday against an Australian plan forcing digital giants to cover news content, telling users their personal data will be "at risk".
Australia announced last month that organizations like Google and Facebook would need to pay news media for content, after 1 . 5 years of negotiations ended without agreement.
The landmark measures would include fines worth huge amount of money for non-compliance and force transparency around the closely guarded algorithms organizations use to rank content.
Google is now fighting a rearguard action to avoid the measures from entering into force.
On Monday it told users in a new home page pop-up that "the way Aussies use Google is at risk" and their search experience "will be hurt" by the changes.
The technology titan linked to an open letter claiming it would be forced to hand over users' search data to press companies and give them information that would "help them artificially inflate their ranking" above other websites.
Google says it already partners with Australian press by paying them huge amount of money and sending vast amounts of clicks each year.
"But instead of encouraging these kind of partnerships, the law is set up to provide big media companies special treatment and to encourage them to create enormous and unreasonable demands that could put our free services at risk," the letter states.
The legislation will primarily concentrate on Facebook and Google -- two of the world's richest and most powerful companies -- but could eventually connect with any digital platform.
Australia's proposals are being closely watched all over the world, as regulators increasingly train their give attention to the rapidly changing sector.
Press worldwide have suffered in the digital economy, where big tech businesses overwhelmingly capture advertising revenue.
The crisis has been exacerbated by the economic collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic, with dozens of Australian newspapers closed and hundreds of journalists sacked lately.
Unlike other countries' so-far unsuccessful efforts to force the platforms to cover news, the Australian initiative depends on competition law instead of copyright regulations.
Source: https://japantoday.com
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