News Article: An Australia With No Google? The Bitter Fight Behind a Drastic Threat

[RollTide_HTTR]

An Australia With No Google? The Bitter Fight Behind a Drastic Threat

SYDNEY, Australia — In a major escalation, Google threatened on Friday to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government approved legislation that would force tech companies to pay for journalism shared on their platforms.

Facebook, which appeared with Google at an Australian Senate hearing, reaffirmed a threat of its own, vowing to block users in Australia from posting or sharing links to news if the bill passed.

In both cases, the dire warnings — which one senator called blackmail — revealed the apparent willingness of Facebook and Google to hide or erase reliable sources of information for millions of people at a time when social media platforms are under fire for helping misinformation spread worldwide.

The companies argue that they already help the media industry by sending it traffic, and that the bill would open them up to “unmanageable levels of financial and operational risk.” The response by Google, which controls 95 percent of all queries in Australia in addition to owning YouTube, has grown particularly aggressive: The company recently buried major Australian news sites in search results in what it called an “experiment.”

Found this very interesting...

 

[B1GTide]

Google could be replaced in a second as a search engine. The rest - maybe not.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

Google could be replaced in a second as a search engine. The rest - maybe not.

Probably true but they own YouTube too.

I don't know much about this situation, as this is the first article I've read on it but it definitely makes you think more about the power these companies may have

 

[B1GTide]

Probably true but they own YouTube too.

I don't know much about this situation, as this is the first article I've read on it but it definitely makes you think more about the power these companies may have

That's what I meant by "the rest". Google owns a lot of tech on the web. I am not sure that I care about what Australia is doing here, but if Google cuts off countries for reasons like this then it needs to be broken up.

 

[AUDub]

That's what I meant by "the rest". Google owns a lot of tech on the web. I am not sure that I care about what Australia is doing here, but if Google cuts off countries for reasons like this then it needs to be broken up.

This. We're pretty much in a "Ma Bell" situation with Google.

 

[Cruloc]

That's what I meant by "the rest". Google owns a lot of tech on the web. I am not sure that I care about what Australia is doing here, but if Google cuts off countries for reasons like this then it needs to be broken up.

Agreed, Google should be broken up, but politicians won't break up something that lines their pockets with huge amounts of money.

 

[Aussie BamaFan]

most people here would just use a vpn if they blocked youtube or google

 

[Tidewater]

Probably true but they own YouTube too.

I don't know much about this situation, as this is the first article I've read on it but it definitely makes you think more about the power these companies may have

I heard a guy on TV saying that, if you go to the youtube-like video-hosting platform"Rumble" and search for "funny cat videos" it will show you results from Youtube. Not an IT guy, but I'm not sure how the happens, unless Rumble is also owned by Google.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

Australia isn't a real place anyway.

There is actually a group of people that believe that.