Google threatens to disable search in Australia if media code becomes law

I kind of wish for a future where Google withdraws from Australia, but it&#x27;s highly unlikely.<p>Also, they never threatened to withdraw search altogether. I watched the parliamentary hearing live and from what I heard, they insinuated they may not continue &quot;some services or features&quot; if the laws are passed as-is.<p>Honestly though, the idea that Google should pay just for showing article links in results is absurd. Snippets is at best slightly more of an argument, but honestly they&#x27;re making use of the og meta tags that these news sites have put in their website themselves.<p>It sets a horrible precedent if you have to pay others for the crime of linking to their content.

Good. Australia is woefully out of its league when it comes to all things tech, with the strong encryption ban being a recent example. Send them back to the stone ages where the media industry is stuck. This bill is nothing but a cash grab.

I think this would be a huge win for growing clout and usage of alternative search engines. Not sure if Google knows what it&#x27;s asking for.<p>Now if Facebook follows suit, even so much better. It&#x27;d be a huge win for privacy.

Wouldn’t disabling search in Australia be worse for Google than for Australia?<p>Australians would just switch over to one of the other search engines like DuckDuckGo. Unlike Gmail, YouTube and some other Google services, Search isn’t that sticky and is easy to replace.