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Bangalore- On Thursday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that he had a “constructive meeting” with the Google chief Sundar Pichai as soon as the tech giants threatened to pull its search engine from the country over a potential new law.
Basically, Australia desires that internet giants Facebook and Google, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, to pay for news feeds or search results. If the parties can’t reach an agreement then the government panel will decide on the price.
On Thursday, according to the transcript of a press conference posted by his office, Morrison said to reporters, “I thought it was a constructive meeting.’
He said, “I have been able to send them the best possible signals that should give them a great encouragement to engage with the process and conclude the arrangements we’d like to see them conclude with the various news media organizations in Australia,”
As per Morrison Google has raised specific aspects of the media bargaining code based on the call and the discussions touched on the company’s ability to continue providing services in Australia.
Without any further elaboration, Morrison said, “At the end of the day, they understand that Australia sets the rules for how these things operate. And I was very clear about how I saw this playing out,”
In the last month, Morrison informed reporters that Australia doesn’t respond to threats.
Distinctly, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told local media that he had a “Very constructive discussion” with the Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg over the proposed media law. However, it didn’t shift the government’s position on the policy.
Moreover, for this Facebook has threatened to stop allowing Australians to share local and international news on social networks and on Instagram only if the law is passed.
Biased advantage
During the time when local media publishers have welcomed the proposed laws, Google said that last year could have given Australia news media business an “unfair advantage” and also it pays millions of dollars to news media companies in the country and sends “billions of free clicks” in their way every year.
Further, Microsoft stands to gain from the fallout between Google and Australia also slammed Google’s threat to withdraw its widely used search engine from the country.
However, Microsoft’s president Brad Smith said that Microsoft never threatens to leave Australia and supports the plan in making digital platforms pay for the news. Also, the CEO Satya Nadella spoke with Morrison.
On Monday, the Prime Minister informed the reporters that based on the conversation with Nadella, Microsoft was “pretty confident” of filling the massive void which might be left by Google if it withdraws its search engine from Australia.
Well, Microsoft owns Bing search engine which has a market share of 3.6% in Australia in comparison to Google’s massive 94.5% share as per web analytics firm StatCounter.
