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Outgoing competition boss Rod Sims has accused Google of anti-journalism sentiment and warned that any attempt by it to avoid legislation would undermine democracy, as the search giant agitates against the introduction of laws in the US that would force it to negotiate with news outlets for use of their content.
Mr Sims said without the creation of Australia’s news media bargaining code, Google and social media giant Facebook would not have agreed to pay sizeable amounts to local publishers for their content, a contribution which he says currently amounts to more than $200 million per year in payments.
Outgoing ACCC boss Rod Sims is worried about Google’s anti-journalism commentary.Credit:Louie Douvis
“It’s not surprising that Google don’t like the code. It forced them to do something they did not want to do, which is pay for journalism,” he said.
“That’s money they would not have paid without the code.”
The comments were made after the search giant wrote to the US Copyright Centre, warning that an attempt to create similar legislation would reduce the number of media voices in market and hurt small publishers.
Google has helped several small independent publishers as a result of the code, but they are many that say it has refused to effectively negotiate with them. Mr Sims’ comments also coincide with the one-year anniversary of Facebook’s decision to shut down access to news in retaliation to the code.
In a statement Google said it has signed multi-year deals with more than 170 local news outlets. But industry sources who requested anonymity said that talks with some small independent news publications have stalled or stopped altogether because it or Facebook don’t believe they fit within the definition of public interest journalism.
Mr Sims, who has led the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission through a landmark inquiry into the market power of digital platforms and the creation of the news media bargaining code, said the submission by Google showed they wanted to be the source of all knowledge, rather than just journalism.
“It’s the anti-journalism approach that I think is most worrying,” he said. “What they’re saying clearly is they don’t want to pay money to the current media companies, which employ journalists, they would rather get information from companies that aren’t media companies, perhaps individuals who aren’t journalists.”