The consumer watchdog raises fresh concerns about tech giant Google's digital advertising dominance, vowing to pursue its potential misuse of market power.
News by Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson Google could face even more regulations in Australia after a damning interim report by the country s competition watchdog. The report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found the trillion-dollar company dominated digital advertising in Australia, and would be investigated over allegations it had abused its market power. The findings come less than a week after Google threatened to withdraw its search engine from Australian users in protest against proposed laws that would force it to pay for the news it uses. But the report was welcomed by the Federal Government, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg saying some Australian laws may need to be updated to keep pace with the changes being driven by digital platforms .
Could Australia’s news media bargaining code break the internet?
26 Jan 20211.01k Views
A version of this article was originally published by The Conversation (CC BY-ND 4.0)
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has raised concerns that Australia’s proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code could fundamentally break the internet as we know it. His concerns are valid. However, they could be addressed through minor changes to the proposed code.
The news media bargaining code aims to level the playing field between media companies and online giants. It would do this by forcing Facebook and Google to pay Australian news businesses for content linked to, or featured, on their platforms.