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Microsoft has decided to capitalize on Google’s threat to shut down its search engine in Australia, putting its weight behind efforts to make Big Tech pay for news content and offering to transfer small businesses to rival service Bing for free. .
The Seattle-based company slammed Google on Wednesday threatens to leave Australia on the news media bargaining code and said he fully supports a bill to force tech groups to pay news providers for content.
“One thing is clear: while other tech companies can sometimes threaten to leave Australia, Microsoft will never make such a threat,” Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said in a statement. “We are committed to supporting the national security and economic success of the country.”
Canberra’s proposed media bargaining code would introduce binding arbitration and non-discrimination clauses to protect publishers and force Google and Facebook to negotiate payments for serving their content.
Google has 94.5% of the search market in Australia, while Microsoft’s search engine Bing has 3.6%, according to StatCounter, a web analytics company.
Microsoft’s decision to drop the gauntlet will complicate Google’s aggressive lobbying campaign against the bill, which he called “impractical” and “unreasonable”.
Mel Silva, chief executive of Google Australia, said last month that if the code becomes law, Google will “have no choice but to stop providing search services in Australia.”
Google said the law would violate a fundamental principle of the internet by requiring it to pay to provide links to news sites. He warned that this would set a damaging precedent and favor one group of content providers – news media groups – over others.
“Withdrawal is our worst case scenario if the code remains unworkable and the last thing we want to happen,” Google said, reiterating that it was prepared to pay publishers for value.
John Kettle, a partner at McCullough Robertson, a Brisbane law firm, said the media code was emblematic of the start of a “technology war” as sovereign countries moved to regain control of the digital behemoths of a trillion dollars.
He said Google’s public threat to leave Australia was a mistake: “It just signals people that there are alternatives to its search engine and has provided an opportunity for its competition.”
Microsoft’s offer to fill any void left by Google’s exit follows discussions last week between Scott Morrison, Australian Prime Minister, and Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO. Mr Morrison has so far shown no sign of submitting to Google, telling media that Canberra “has not responded to threats.”
Google and Facebook critics said the couple had only recently started accept agreements with news providers, and that the code is necessary to ensure that dominant digital platforms negotiate in good faith.
Efforts to make Big Techs pay for information also come as Google, Facebook, and other Silicon Valley companies face escalation global review on their market dominance.
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