Last July, the Australian government announced that digital giants, such as Google and Facebook, will be required to pay traditional news media to post their content under a new law to be implemented by the end of the year developed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
"We want Google and Facebook to continue to provide these services to the Australian community, which are so much loved and used by Australians," Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.
However, this new law was not received well by Google and warned the Australian government to expect "dramatically worse" services or lose its free search service.
Google's Open Letter to Australians
On Monday, August 17, Google warned the Australian government that the draft code would threaten the free services of the company to the Australians.
In an "Open letter to Australians," Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Mel Silva said that the said draft code would significantly affect Google's services and its subsidiary YouTube.
She wrote that it would force the tech giant to deliver the citizens a "dramatically worse" Google search and YouTube services and could lead the user's data being handed over to big media businesses putting the services at risk in the country.
Google and Facebook opposed the proposed legislation released last month, which aims to succeed in making these tech giants pay for news content that other countries have failed.
Moreover, the letter stated that the new law would force both companies to give an unfair advantage to only the news media business over everyone else who has a website, YouTube channel, or small business.
YouTube Asia Pacific boss Gautam Anand also released a similar letter to Australian YouTube creators, as well as to some users on the Google homepage on Monday morning. It is expected to release similar promotions tomorrow morning.
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News Media Bargaining Code
Amid these assertions by Google, the ACCC challenged some of the letter's statements saying that it contains misinformation about the draft News Media Bargaining Code.
According to them, Google will not require Australians to pay for the use of its free services unless it chooses to do so. They said that the principle behind the draft code is that there is an imbalance of power between the tech giants and the media companies in Australia.
The draft code would require Facebook and Google to negotiate with for-profit media businesses in good faith to come up with an agreement where the tech giants would pay for news content hosted on the platforms.
However, if both sides do not reach an agreement, they will proceed to arbitration, allowing both parties to lay out an offer, and an independent arbiter would decide for them.
Furthermore, the draft code would require both companies to give advance notice of any changes in their algorithms that may impact how the news content would be shown. The draft code would also set a standard for how the two companies shared data concerning the way users can access the news content.
The draft code will only be open for public discussion until August 18, 2020.
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