Emails prove Google was serious about blocking search in Australia
Google was prepared to block its search services in Australia over laws that require it to pay media companies for the use of its content, documents filed in an antitrust case have revealed.
In Washington, DC, Google is currently facing the largest tech antitrust case since the Department of Justice brought monopoly charges against Microsoft in the 1990s.
The DOJ alleges deals struck between Google and other companies, such as Apple and Samsung, for key positioning of its search engine, were anticompetitive, and led to its current market dominance. Google counters its popularity is simply because it has the best product.
While only tangentially related, internal emails filed as part of the case have revealed that Google was preparing to block its search engine in Australia in 2020, upon the proposed introduction of the News Media Bargaining Code in Australia.
The code, which passed into law in March 2021, was designed to avoid tech giants such as Google and Facebook having a significant bargaining power imbalance.
Given they benefit from the use of copyright content from news companies, both Facebook and Google entered into “voluntary commercial agreements” with most of Australia’s news media organisations – under the threat that the Treasurer has the power to force these digital platforms to play ball, anyway.
Google and Facebook both struck against these laws by threatening to pull out of the Australian market.
While Google kept to a threat — saying the proposed law “would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia” — Facebook actually blocked all news on its platform in February 2021, along with a number of emergency services and government pages for a number of days, forcing a change to the code before it became law the following month.
Now, a series of emails shows that Google was prepared to shut down even earlier that Facebook with the company was discussing the negative impacts a planned December 2020 shutdown could have on a newly minted relationship with Samsung.
The Australian “shut down” was discussed internally with the use of a codename, which has been redacted in the emails.
“Don’t discuss [redacted] explicitly with Samsung prior to the AU shut down,” Google product manager Bryan Mao wrote.
“There’s a confidential, Need to Know project called [redacted] that may affect Samsung.
“In short, due to a new law in Australia, Search features may be disabled starting Dec 3 across Australia… This includes Discover and most/all Search and Assistant functionality. If this goes through, it would obviously have a major impact across Samsung devices in AU.
“The shutdown isn’t definitely going to happen, but we are planning for it all the same. This obviously isn’t our ideal way to start out the new relationship with Samsung.”
The emails show that Google had gone so far as mocking up a 404 page that read: “Search isn’t available in Australia right now. Due to a new law, Google Search isn’t available, but we hope to be back soon.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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