Google intensifies PR campaign against Australian regulation, bombards users with ‘proposals’ against rules

In a move against the Australian legislation, tech giant Google stepped up its public relations campaign on Friday by presenting all search users with a “proposal” to protest against the planned rules. 

Aussies searching for anything on Google’s search engine were presented with a pop-up, setting out company’s opposition against the law that would force it to pay news companies for content.

Also read: TikTok-competition YouTube shorts clocks 3.5 billion daily views in India

Google, along with Facebook, has openly opposed the proposed rules, which are intended to rebalance the relationship between technology and social giants and the news companies in the country that are long-struggling due to the online advertising market. 

Under the new laws, the tech companies would be required to compensate Australian media firms, ranging from Rupert Murdoch’s giant News Corp to public broadcaster ABC, for publishing snippets of their content in search results or news feed.

Also read: Trump’s YouTube channel suspended indefinitely; Rudy Giuliani’s channel barred from revenue program

The rules are being closely watched around the world, as governments consider how to better regulate online media companies that have become some of the biggest and most influential entities on Earth.

To put these regulations on halt, Google has previously threatened Australia to pull its search service from the country and in one of its recent tactic, it focused on winning over internet users.

Mel Silva, managing director for Google Australia, has warned that the new rules would “break the way that search engines work” and threaten a “free and open web”. World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee has backed his argument.