Australian Prime Minister suggests Bing agrees if Google blocks Australian searches

It was a joke, but it’s not that funny anymore. Google is threatening to block searches in Australia if the country implements a mandatory profit-sharing agreement that would force tech giants like Google and Facebook to pay media companies for their content. But Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is not sweating.

Morrison suggested Monday at National Press Club of Australia that Australians can use Microsoft’s Bing search engine if Google is serious about getting out of the country.

“Are you sure that alternative search engines will be able to fill a huge void left by Google and that Australians will not be worse off?” asked Rosie Lewis, reporter for the Australian newspaper.

“I can tell you Microsoft is pretty confident,” Morrison replied with a confident laugh.

“When I spoke to Satya the other day, there was a bit of that,” Morrison said, rubbing his hands and referring to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

After the friendly laughter subsided, Morrison returned to the talking points he had raised earlier, insisting that Australians make Australian law and the government will not respond to any. Google threats

.

Look, these are big tech companies. And what’s important for Australia is that we set the rules that are important to our people, ”Morrison said. “And to have an information environment in this country that is sustainable and commercially supported, then that’s vital for the functioning of democracies.”

The proposed profit-sharing program has been dubbed the Media Trading Code, and Google users in Australia are inundated with ads about how the proposed program would harm the internet. every time they visit Google.

Morrison noted during today’s event that when he has met with leaders of other countries at G20 meetings over the years, he has often spoken not only of the accountability of international corporations through taxes, but also how to get everyone on the same page when it comes to antitrust. and competition policy issues.

“I would love to see more alignment between the world’s economies on this stuff,” Morrison said, perhaps nodding at the fact that there has been little traction in the United States to divide the ‘one of the great tech companies that they themselves are turf.

But then Morrison hinted at the implications of the Code of Media Bargaining which have not taken center stage. One potential consequence, as Morrison suggested, was that online speech could be regulated in new ways to ensure more civilized discussion.

“We just want the rules of the digital world to be the same as the real world … in the physical world,” Morrison said. “And that means you can’t abuse people and behave like everyone else. You wouldn’t behave like that in a room like this. Or I don’t think you would.“

Needless to say, this article he hadn’t really been discussed in the Australian mainstream media as a potential consequence of the application of the Code. But it makes sense that Morrison is sensitive to things being said online. Morrison has become a meme more than once, aand if Internet users were talking about the time at which they Wet your pants at McDonald’s

, you probably also want to crack down on trolls.