Australian Antitrust Law Hits Small Content Creators Says Google

On Monday August 17, Google said a proposed antitrust law in Australia forcing tech firms to pay for news that appears on their social media websites would adversely impact individual content creators and channel operators.

Google said the law proposed last month would help big media firms artificially inflate their search ranking, luring more viewers to their platforms and giving them an unfair advantage over small contributors running their own websites or YouTube channels, reported Reuters.

Google’s YouTube video service allows individuals and companies to create channels featuring advertisements that create revenue for both them and YouTube.

The US tech giant said the law may also obligate it to give big news firms confidential data about systems that they could use to try to appear higher in rankings on YouTube, resulting in fewer views for content of smaller businesses.

“This law wouldn’t just impact the way Google and YouTube work with news media businesses – it would impact all of our Australian users,” Google Australia Managing Director Mel Silva said in a post titled “Open letter to Australians”.

Full Content: Reuters

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