The Australian Government’s upcoming News Media Bargaining Code has been flagged by Google as legislation that will drastically alter and negatively affect Google’s search engine and its related systems.

This newly developed mandatory Code was brought about by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to address the imbalance of bargaining power between dominant digital platforms and traditional Australian news media sources. Many news sources view Google as stealing their content or driving away consumers, but in reality, Google acts as medium that filters through news and links it to consumers.

The issues that Google has with this proposed reform boils down to three points:

1)    With this new legislation, news media sources will have the ability to manipulate Google’s algorithm to artificially inflate their rankings and unfairly alter the flow of online traffic at the cost of other websites, businesses, and channels.

2)    News media businesses will also have the ability to require Google to inform them of how Google collects user data, with no guarantee of security or how that data will be utilised and disposed of.

3)    The concept behind the Code is to encourage collective bargaining with mainstream news media and smaller or regional/rural news media sources to stronghold Google into a more lucrative position during negotiations and partnerships.

Consequently, this legislation may have the result of completely restructuring Google’s search engine, not just nationally, but around the globe and will require Google to give special notice to Australian news businesses, reducing parity and potentially worsening results for consumers. Moreover, Google will be locked into a 28-day holding period for approval of the news media businesses before pushing changes to their system, which more often than not may be time-sensitive and necessary bug fixes.

Despite coming from an equitable stance, this proposed News Media Bargaining Code poses various threats to Google’s operation as well as the interaction that Australian consumers will have with the search engine in a feeble attempt to revitalise traditional media businesses. Google has taken a firm stance in opposition to this law and called for a “workable code” with reasonable amendments to preserve the relationship between Google and Australian news media. It will be interesting how the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission addresses Google’s oppositions.

For further reading see ‘Open letter to Australians’