Google threatens to pull out of Australia over controversial news law

Emotional, Burning, Unlimited Tuned Laboratory

Google said that it could pull its search services from Australia if the country passes its debatable law that requires big tech companies to pay media organizations for listing their content.

In a Senate hearing, and later in a video, Google Australia’s Managing Director, Mel Silva, said that the proposed media law “would break how Google search works.”

In a blog post, Silva said this law will hinder unrestricted linking of webpages and the company will have to stop its search service in the country:

Coupled with the unmanageable financial and operational risk if this version of the Code were to become law it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia.

All of this started in 2019 when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) began to …