The public debate between tech giant Google and Australia’s competition watchdog has taken another turn.
Following Google’s open letter on Monday – which outlined the company’s concerns with the Federal Government’s planned News Media Bargaining Code – the ACCC accused the tech giant of spreading “misinformation” with its response.
Specifically, the ACCC said: “Google will not be required to charge Australians for the use of its free services such as Google Search and YouTube, unless it chooses to do so.”
Responding to the claims, a Google spokesperson reinforced the company’s position, that such a code would inhibit the services Google can provide inn Australia.
“We did not say that the proposed law would require us to charge Australians for Search and YouTube – we do not intend to charge users for our free services,” the spokesperson said.
“What we did say is that Search and YouTube, both of which are free services, are at risk in Australia. That’s because the Code as it is drafted is unworkable.
“If we were to comply with this provision it would seriously damage our products and fundamentally alter the way ranking of search results works across Google Search and YouTube.”
There is also debate over whether or not Google will have to hand over user data to media businesses.
Google originally said that under the code, it will be forced to hand over information on how they can gain access to data about how readers use Google products.
The ACCC retorted: “Google will not be required to share any additional user data with Australian news businesses unless it chooses to do so.”
Google has since pointed out that the proposed legislation “goes beyond the current level of data sharing between Google and news publishers”.
