Spotlight Stories

Google threatens to remove its search engine from Australia due to media code

Google has threatened to remove its search engine from Australia due to the media code introduced by the government.

Published

1 month ago

January 22, 2021

Janet John

Google made a whooping $4.7b from news content in 2018, Google Threatens To Remove Its Search Engine From Australia Due To Media Code

Google said that it will disable its search engine in Australia if the government proceeds with a media code that would force it and Facebook Inc to pay local media companies for sharing their content.

The code requires Google and Facebook to enter mandatory arbitration with media companies if they cannot reach an agreement over the value of their content within three months.

It also requires the platforms to give the news businesses 14 days’ notice of algorithm changes, and non-discrimination provisions have been put in place to stop the tech giants from taking retaliatory action such as removing content or punishing organisations that participate in the code.

READ: Satoshi Nakamoto’s unspent BTCs worth $10.9 billion

Mel Silva, Google Australia and New Zealand VP told Australia’s Senate Economics Legislation Committee today that Google would shut off the search in Australia if the government’s proposed media bargaining code becomes law. According to her, “The code’s arbitration model with bias criteria presents an unmanageable financial and operational risk for Google”

Australia announced the legislation last month after an investigation found Alphabet Inc-owned Google and social media giant Facebook held too much market power in the media industry, a situation it said posed a potential threat to a well-functioning democracy.

READ: Facebook Oversight Board to review decision to suspend Trump’s account

Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison said Australia would not respond to the threats as news media companies fired back at suggestions their content did not add value to the platforms. “Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia. That’s done in our Parliament. It’s done by our government, and that’s how things work here in Australia,” he said. “People who want to work with that, in Australia, you’re very welcome. But we don’t respond to threats.”

READ: Betting on Bitcoin is better than investing in PayPal, Google, Facebook, Amazon

What you should know

Google’s threats follow similar remarks made by Facebook Australia’s managing director, Will Easton in September, who announced plans to remove news articles from the social media’s main app if the media code is passed by Parliament.
To avoid the operation of the code, Google and Facebook have no option but to cease linking to news altogether. If Google can’t reliably separate news results from other search results, then logically it may have to pull its entire search service from Australia.
Google’s threat to limit its services in Australia came just hours after the internet giant reached a content-payment deal with some French news publishers.
This new media code will affect millions of Australians who use Google Search and Facebook every month.

Janet John

Janet John is a graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Uyo. She specializes in technical writing where she creates easy to read documentation, articles to clearly and efficiently explain highly complex processes. When she is not writing, she works as a freelance front-end developer

Click to comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Market Views

Bears take Nigerian stocks hostage, investors lose N82.4 billion

Investor sentiment as measured by the market breadth closed negative with 12 advancers and 47 decliners.

Published

4 hours ago

March 4, 2021

Olumide Adesina

Nigeria’s all-share index fell further at the close of trading today, down by -0.40% to 39,364.67 points. Investors losses today stood at N82.35 billion.

Year-to-date return and market capitalization settled at -2.26% and N20.5 trillion, respectively.
Investor sentiment as measured by the market breadth closed negative with 12 advancers and 47 decliners.
Across coverage sectors, the performance was bearish. The NSE insurance, banking, consumer goods, and oil & gas sectors dipped 4.04%, 1.54%, 1.47%, 64 basis points, and 0.65%, respectively.
The flip side saw only the industrials improved marginally by 0.19%.

Top gainers

UPL up 9.91% to close at N1.22
MORISON up 9.09% to close at N0.6
CAP up 5.26% to close at N20
WAPCO up 3.59% to close at N20.2
LIVESTOCK up 3.17% to close at N2.28

Top losers

FIDSON down 10.00% to close at N4.41
NNFM down 9.97% to close at N6.32
ENAMELWA down 9.95% to close at N19.9
NEM down 9.95% to close at N1.72
NCR down 9.91% to close at N3.09

Outlook

Nigerian stocks ended the fourth trading session on a weaker note amid soaring oil prices prevailing at the U.S trading session.

Today’s bearish trading session was inclined by sell pressure on consumer ticker, DANGSUGAR which lost -6.25%. JBERGER, ARDOVA, and UBA also declined by -7.88%, 9.85%, and -3.64%, respectively.
Nairametrics expects intending buyers to seek the advice of certified stockbrokers.

Coronavirus

President Buhari, Osibanjo to take Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday

President Buhari and his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo will receive shots of AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday.

Published

8 hours ago

March 4, 2021

Chike Olisah

The Federal Government has announced that President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, will receive shots of AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday to demonstrate vaccine safety to the public.

This follows the country’s receipt of the first batch of about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine under the COVAX initiative and the planned launch of the national vaccination campaign.

This disclosure was made by the Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, at the second edition of the State House briefing in Abuja on Thursday, which is focused on Nigeria’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the country’s national vaccination strategy.

He said that the exercise will boost the confidence of Nigerians to receive the about 4 million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine that arrived in the country 2 days ago.

Shuaib said, “The next step in the vaccination programme given that we’ve now received the vaccines is a launch that will be taking place at the National Hospital tomorrow. The time scheduled for that launch is 10 am. The launch will be conducted by the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, (Boss Mustapha).

“The plan is to vaccinate the frontline health workers that work in the treatment centre of the National Hospital, those will be the first people just like we’ve communicated that frontline health workers will be the first people to take the vaccines.

“Launch of National vaccination campaign will take place at the National Hospital Abuja, Friday, March 5, 2021, with Frontline health workers.

On Saturday, the plan is to vaccinate Mr President, Mr Vice-President and strategic leaders, to demonstrate vaccine safety to the public.

Again, we are hopeful that when Nigerians see leaders like Mr President and Mr Vice-President take the vaccines; it will increase their confidence around the safety of the vaccines.

“As you are well aware that even before the vaccines arrived in Nigeria, there is a lot of hesitancy. It is a global phenomenon. Vaccine hesitancy is similar no matter where you are, you have to provide the right information and to those people who have questions, we cannot dismiss their cynicism.’’

The NPHCDA boss also said that state governments must certain requirements and obligations before the Covid-19 vaccines will be released to them.

He said, ‘’States have requirements and obligations to fulfil before the Covid vaccines will be released to them. They have to demonstrate they have taken steps to ensure proper storage, security, etc.’’

What you should know

It can be recalled that the much-awaited AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine arrived at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja around noon on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, onboard an Emirates airline.
The receipt of the 3.92 million doses of the vaccine is the first batch from the over 16 million doses allocated to Nigeria through the COVAX initiative, aimed at vaccinating about 20% of the population.

CEO @NphcdaNG: Launch of National vaccination campaign will take place at the National Hospital, Abuja, Fri March 5, 2021, with Frontline health workers
On Saturday the plan is to Vaccinate Mr. President & the VP and strategic leaders, to demonstrate vaccine safety to the public
— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) March 4, 2021