Google is toughening up its tone in Australia.

The American giant threatened, Friday, January 22, to block its search engine in this country if Canberra did not modify its plan to force the Californian giant to pay the media for their content.

The Australian government is working on a "binding code of conduct" supposed to govern relations between media in great financial difficulty and the giants which dominate the Internet, foremost among which Google and Facebook, which capture a significant share of advertising revenue.

This project, one of the most restrictive in the world, provides for penalties of several million euros in the event of an infringement and targets the "news feed" of Facebook and searches on Google.

"Worst scenario"

But Google Australia chief executive Mel Silva said at an Australian Senate hearing on Friday that the "worst case scenario" would be for the draft code to pass as it is, and added that her group would see themselves in the future. the obligation to suspend its research services in Australia.

"If this version of the code became law, it would leave us with no real choice but to suspend Google Search in Australia," she said.

A threat to which Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison curtly responded.

"Australia makes the rules as to what can be done in Australia. It's our Parliament that decides," he said.

"People who are willing to work in this context in Australia are welcome. But we do not bow to the threats."

"Slight amendments"

The Australian initiative is being followed closely around the world at a time when the media are suffering in a digital economy where advertising revenue is increasingly captured by Facebook, Google and other large tech firms.

The media crisis has been compounded by the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus.

In Australia dozens of newspapers have been closed and hundreds of journalists fired.

The draft code provides for Google and Facebook to remunerate Australian media, whether it is the ABC public group or the titles of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp group, for the recovery of their content.

Canberra has decided to target only Facebook and Google, but not other very popular platforms like Instagram or YouTube.

Mel Silva assured that Google wanted to support the media, and suggested changes to the draft code which is to come into force this year.

"There is a clear path to developing a fair code that you can work with, if you just make small amendments to it," she said.

Google recently argued that it could prevent content from Australian media sites from appearing in responses on its search engine.

It has started to test this type of measure with a small number of Internet users.

But it was Friday the first time the group said it was ready to block its search engine in Australia.

Facebook threats

The United States has also just urged Australia to abandon its project, deeming it "fundamentally unbalanced" in favor of the media.

Facebook also rejected the code in its current form, saying it would stop posting Australian media content if it came into effect.

"The vast majority of people who use Facebook could continue to do so, but we would no longer be able to deliver news," Simon Milner, a senior Facebook official, told Australia's Senate.

Australia is not the only market where Google is in conflict with the media.

Thursday, the Californian group announced the conclusion of a framework agreement which paves the way for the remuneration of French dailies under "neighboring rights", this new right similar to copyright established by a European directive two years ago. years.

With AFP

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