Google says Australian law on paying for news is unworkable

Proposed legislation would force Google and Facebook to compensate Australian news media for the journalism they link to

Google argues that the law would be an ‘unprecedented intervention that would fundamentally break how search engines work’

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Legislation proposed in Australia would force Google to compensate news media for the journalism it links to. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:27pm, 19 Dec 2020Updated: 7:26pm, 19 Dec 2020

A Google executive said on Friday that a proposed Australian law to make digital platforms pay for news was unworkable and that its proposed arbitration model was biased toward media businesses.

Google Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Mel Silva made her first public comments on the details of the proposed legislation since it was introduced to Parliament last week.

The so-called News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code would force Google and Facebook to compensate Australian news media for the journalism they link to.

“It forces Google to pay to show links in an unprecedented intervention that would fundamentally break how search engines work,” Silva said in a statement.

If a platform and a news business could not agree on a price for news after three months of negotiations, a three-member arbitration panel would be appointed to make a binding decision for payment.

Silva said “binding arbitration within the code could be a reasonable backstop – so long as the arbitration model is fair”.

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