Thank you, Bakerer.
^^^^^ THIS!
Thad'd be a huge shame
==Google has made a bold threat to Aussie internet users as it launches a bitter fight to avoid paying for local news content.=
Google says it will have no choice but to make Google Search unavailable in Australia if the government succeeds in implementing its new media code forcing big tech companies to pay for Australian news content.
In a massive escalation of its opposition, Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Mel Silva said the trillion-dollar US firm would no longer allow Australians to use its search engine if the government enacted the news media bargaining code as proposed.
It is the first clear threat from Google in response to the laws.
Google and Facebook are fronting a senate inquiry on Friday, after threatening to derail future investments in Australia over the government’s media law reforms.
Ms Silva conceded the company had only paid $59m in corporate tax last year, despite a gross revenue of $4.8b.
But she said a provision in the law, requiring company to pay for links and snippets, would make keeping Google Search unviable in Australia.
“The principle of unrestricted linking between websites is fundamental to search and coupled with the unmanageable financial and operational risk,” she said.
“If this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia.
“Now that would be a bad outcome for us, but also for the Australian people media diversity, and the small businesses who use our products every day.
“Now withdrawing our services from Australia is the last thing that I or Google want to have happen, especially when there is another way forward.”
The removal of Google’s search engine in Australia could have a significant impact on internet users and their ability to use the worldwide web.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found Google dominated web search traffic in Australia, estimating that it handles 95 per cent of internet search traffic in the country.
Without Google search, Australian internet users could be forced to use alternatives including Microsoft’s Bing, privacy-focused offering DuckDuckGo and Yahoo!
Rather than being forced to pay for links and snippets, Ms Silva said Google could be allowed to reach commercial agreements for publishers.
But Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused Google taking a “my way or the highway approach … (and) wanting to put roadblocks in the way”.
She said the tech giant was threatening to block all Australians from using Google Search, despite news searched making up just 1.25 per cent of searches on the platform.
“That’s a hell of a threat,” she told Ms Silva.
“And it doesn’t seem to add up with the facts that you’ve presented yourself about the impact that this would have just on news content in Australia.”
The bill also includes an independent umpire that would choose between offers put forward by each side, if the parties could not agree on a fee for news content.
Ms Silva said the arbitration process had been “chosen specifically to ensure speed and efficiency” but was a model used when there was not much debate over the cost of a fee.
She said Google was “not opposed to paying publishers for value, but the details matter”.
“This is a very one sided and untested approach that’s actually never been used in a mandatory code before without consent of both parties,” she said.
“And what we’re talking about here is something that no website has ever been paid for and no search engine has ever had to pay our approach, without workable code is that we would have standard commercial arbitration, based on comparable deals.”
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/google-facebook-senate-inquiry-kicks-off-into-news-bargaining-code/news-story/a604d4108bf947010cb29683994cd528
perty 'splosions. what is?