Juan J. Monroe 
Can you imagine life without Google? It’s the curious reality Australians have been contemplating since the US tech group threatened to shut down its ubiquitous search engine in their country last month over a bill that would force Big Tech to pay information providers. for content.
“If the code becomes law, Google will really have no choice but to stop providing search services in Australia,” Mel Silva, chief executive of Google Australia and New Zealand, told MPs from a parliamentary committee examining the draft media negotiation code on 22 January. .
Google’s ultimatum provoked a laconic reaction from Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister, who I saidjournalists, “we do not respond to threats”. Still, there are growing fears in the business and tech sector that a Google exit – or “G-exit” – could cause serious disruption, especially for small businesses that rely on search to attract customers. to their websites.
“It would have a significant impact on our ability to connect our content to our audience,” according to Neil Ackland, managing director of Junkee Media, a small publisher that targets the youth market.
Ackland warned that the code, which government sources expect to be enacted within weeks, could “potentially be fatal” for small publishers such as Junkee, which rely on Google and Facebook to to drive 75 percent of traffic to their websites.
The code would create an arbitration system that could make binding decisions on what fees Google and Facebook must pay information providers for content served on their platform if trade talks fail. The platforms would also provide at least 14 days notice before changing algorithms that would impact traffic to news sites. And there are stiff financial penalties if either company breaches the non-discrimination clauses.
Canberra says the world’s first regulation is needed to address a “fundamental imbalance” in bargaining power between Google and Facebook and traditional media companies. Technology groups have become “guardians” of the Internet, capture A$81 on every A$100 spent on online advertising and are unwilling to compensate news providers fairly for their content, the government says.
The two tech companies say the code is unenforceable in its current form and say they derive little financial benefit from displaying the information.
Google has warned it will break the way its search engine works and undermine a fundamental principle of the internet by forcing the company to pay to provide links to news websites. Facebook said it would remove all news, local and international, from its platform in Australia if the code is enacted.
Big Tech launched a massive code lobbying campaign against news providers, such as Nine Entertainment and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The latter claims he owes up to A$1 billion a year to Google and Facebook for shipping eyeballs on their platforms. Analysts say the outcome of the battle has global implications, with the EU, Canada, France and several other jurisdictions considering similar regulation.
“A source of concern for Google is that the news media trading code sets a precedent, potentially spurring regulation in larger markets such as the United States,” said Liam Harrison, analyst at IbisWorld, a research group.
Google’s hardball tactic of threatening to shut down its search engine has upped the ante for Canberra, which critics say drew up the pioneering settlement to curry favor with News Corp – a staunch supporter of the Conservative government.
Atlassian, Australia’s most successful technology company, said the code is bad regulation because it targets only two companies and would “harm future technology investments and the economy as a whole.”
Most analysts predict that the “G exit” would cause a significant economic impact in the short term, but not as dramatic as the A$53 billion in annual economic benefits that Google complaints it generates for businesses and consumers in Australia.
But Google’s tightrope approach also carries significant risks for the company. Some analysts warn that the group’s heavy-handed lobbying tactics could prove counterproductive.
“There are already calls for ‘Big Tech’ to be dismantled in the United States and there may be more when it comes to monopolies. . . this could in the future mean laws prohibiting Google from being the default engine for browsers,” said David Holmes, assistant professor at Monash University in Melbourne.
