Despite the Australian Government applying pressure onto Google over local news media, a coalition of American government and business organisations have claimed that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code may violate the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.
With the Biden administration coming into force, the US Chamber of Commerce has expressed the view that Australia’s legislation “explicitly targets and discriminates against US companies”. This issue ties into Australia’s obligations under its Free Trade Agreement, where Australia has a non-discrimination obligation against favouring its national news. What is interesting is that the US has highlighted this obligation but has traditionally taken a stance that aims to control the global tech giants. Accordingly, in this situation, the US is apprehensive of Australia taking a unilateral move to regulate American businesses, thus, it is clear that the US recognises that Australia may set a global precedent with this law and reshape the operation of digital tech giants internationally.
In light of the US’ position, the Australian federal government has obtained legal advice over its international trade agreement as well as Australian domestic law and stands confident that the News Media Bargaining Code will not breach the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. However, following the Senate’s hearing, Google has come forward to threaten to disable the Google search engine in Australia if this version of the law becomes a reality. Neither side is backing down or succumbing to threats and this new code has a real potential to ‘break the internet’ in Australia with very real worldwide implications with regards to the operation of linking and hyperlinking. It is imperative that both sides come to an appropriate agreement before any major damage occurs.
A vote over the bill is expected on 12 February following a final report of the News Media Bargaining Code.
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