Google Slams Australia Law Forcing Tech Giants to Pay for News

US technology giant Google went on the offensive Monday against an Australian plan to force digital giants to pay for news content, telling users that their personal data would be "at risk."

Australia announced last month that companies like Google and Facebook would have to pay news media for content after 18 months of negotiations ended without agreement, reports AFP.

The groundbreaking steps will involve penalties costing millions of dollars for non-compliance and require accountability about the tightly held formulas that companies use to rate information.

Google is already taking back-guard intervention to keep the legislation from coming into effect.

On Monday it told users in a new homepage pop-up that “the way Aussies use Google is at risk” and their search experience “will be hurt” by the changes.

The internet giant related to an open letter alleging that it will be pressured to turn over customer search details to news media outlets to supply them with the knowledge that will "enable them unfairly inflate their rating" over other websites.

Google says it already partners with Australian news media by paying them millions of dollars and sending billions of clicks each year.

“But rather than encouraging these types of partnerships, the law is set up to give big media companies special treatment and to encourage them to make enormous and unreasonable demands that would put our free services at risk,” the letter states.

The legislation will initially concentrate on Facebook and Google — two of the largest and most influential corporations in the world — but will potentially extend to every internet medium.

Australia 's policies are being followed closely around the globe as policymakers continually concentrate on the quickly developing market.

Traditional outlets worldwide also struggled in the modern age, where major software companies are disproportionately collecting advertisement income.

The crisis has been exacerbated by the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with dozens of Australian newspapers shut down and hundreds of journalists sacked in recent months.

Unlike other countries’ so-far unsuccessful efforts to force the platforms to pay for news, the Australian initiative relies on competition law rather than copyright regulations.

It has strong support from local media outlets and is expected to be introduced this year.