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Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

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Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#41

Post by 908B64B197 »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #5
nness wrote: post #2

If we ever needed any proof that Australia's Liberal (conservative) party was a puppet for News Corp, its this law.

As somebody who dislikes both the established old media firms of Murdoch & Co, but despises the parasitic Tech surveillance capitalism even more, I welcome this (regressive) attitude. Europeans are fighting for similar reasons which is loss of control of their own media and a takeover by US propaganda and norms by companies who have failed to pay their taxes again and again. imo it doesn't matter that many of these l…

> Europeans are fighting for similar reasons [...] by companies who have failed to pay their taxes again and again.

I get that it's trendy right now for elected non-technical bureaucrats to whine against tech giants. But if they are really avoiding taxes why not simply... charge them for that? Hint: They can't because all the taxation schemes used by these companies are legal. EU bureaucrats could simply write a tax code that makes them illegal but they won't!

All the whining also distracts peoples from asking themselves why European policies failed to grow a healthy growing tech ecosystem like in the US.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#42

Post by zzedd »

908B64B197 wrote: post #40
zhd wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: takeover by US firms, note that while Murdoch was born Australian he gave up Australian in favor of US citizenship... precisely because it would have been illegal to own such a stake in US media firms as a non- or dual-citizen. We would also like the Murdoch media and/or tech giants to pay tax in Australia, yes, but neither do at the moment.

Why does Australia allows such a large percentage of it's medias to be owned by a foreigner?

because 'the foreigner' controls the media. it's a race condition.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#43

Post by GizmoSwan »

throwaways885 wrote: post #19
GizmoSwan wrote: post #14

They won't block google because they are aligned with US. Google will probably remove it's news tab in Australia. No matter which country. news organizations have to eventually find a way to organize and deal with their internet providers to get a fee based on quality and quantity of news they provide.

Imagine the outrage if your ISP told you the fee was going up to pay for Murdoch's propaganda machine.

After he is gone, I don't think that his kids will stick around as long as he did but other entities will jockey up for the field and that process will continue if there are consumers of it .

News and editorials have to be separated. Editorials and blogs should not be paid for via such funding in my opinion.

ISP funding of various type of blogs, media, arts, etc should become elective via bundles that people select otherwise.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#44

Post by Gatsky »

dazc wrote: post #22
Gatsky wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News corp, headed Rupert Murdoch, owns a lot of media in Australia. Most of this media is abjectly shithouse but heavily consumed by people aged 60+. Murdoch wields undue political power because of this, which induces elected politicians to fawn over him. They gave him the order of Australia the other week for example, which seems nonsensical to many actual Australian citizens, to whom he appears to be a rich prick s…

'If I have to use a VPN to get decent search results because of this nonsense I will NOT be pleased.' Good news then because you can use Duck Duck Go and get reasonable results without being stalked around the internet or run the risk of your parents clicking a scam ad because 'it has 5 gold stars beneath it'.

Have tried DDG before but wasn't that impressed. Will give it another look.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#45

Post by username90 »

levosmetalo wrote: post #33
username90 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google already carry all local newspapers at a fixed rate. The Australian government just decided to increase the rate to a level Google argue they can't operate under and therefore would have to exit.

So let them exit then. It's not like Google has the right to set prices for themselves. It's similar to Germany where, i.e. book prices are fixed, and every store must sell for the same price, whether they like it or not. Of course, they have a choice not to sell.

Yeah, that is what happens, just that people complain that Google says they are about to exit.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#46

Post by strken »

1234throwaway wrote: post #32
strken wrote: post #12

This is absolutely ridiculous legislation, because it doesn't give Google the option of just removing all these news sources from search results if their asking price is too high. In effect, there's no choice but to pull the entirety of search out of Australia, or pay whatever arbitrary price the arbitration process comes up with. It's like forcing internationally-owned supermarkets to stock newspapers at a price det…

You can't use your absolute power in the marketplace to bully people, only google and other tech giants are allowed to do that!

I'm fine with using your arbitrary power to regulate companies in an effective way, but when you leave them no recourse but to agree to your demands or pull their most useful product out of your country, you don't get to turn around and act like they're leaving out of spite.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#47

Post by zeofig »

dannyw wrote: post #29
zeofig wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I'm not a fan of the law either. Google's response was also irritating: plastering ads for their video (against the new law) on every search made from Australia.

You'd rather want Google search to just disappear someday?

Is that in any way what I said? But yes.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#48

Post by robin21 »

Gatsky wrote: post #13
robin21 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain?

News corp, headed Rupert Murdoch, owns a lot of media in Australia. Most of this media is abjectly shithouse but heavily consumed by people aged 60+. Murdoch wields undue political power because of this, which induces elected politicians to fawn over him. They gave him the order of Australia the other week for example, which seems nonsensical to many actual Australian citizens, to whom he appears to be a rich prick s…

Murdoch is 90yo this year. I find it hard to believe that he wants to line his pockets. He has more money than he can ever spend.

Google is a worldwide monopoly. No one has any chance of negotiating with them. Even a country as it turns out without them threatening complete pull out.

I see this as strong leadership standing up to monopolies.

I would prefer the free market to sort it out honestly but what chance does anyone have against them.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#49

Post by robin21 »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #5
nness wrote: post #2

If we ever needed any proof that Australia's Liberal (conservative) party was a puppet for News Corp, its this law.

As somebody who dislikes both the established old media firms of Murdoch & Co, but despises the parasitic Tech surveillance capitalism even more, I welcome this (regressive) attitude. Europeans are fighting for similar reasons which is loss of control of their own media and a takeover by US propaganda and norms by companies who have failed to pay their taxes again and again. imo it doesn't matter that many of these l…

The fact they threaten to pull out because they are going to make a small decrease in profits speaks volumes of their bullying tactics. It’s clearly a case of: we don’t want to set a precedent in other countries.

Re: Communications Minister touts the opportunities of a Google-less Australia

#50

Post by robin21 »

strken wrote: post #46
1234throwaway wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't use your absolute power in the marketplace to bully people, only google and other tech giants are allowed to do that!

I'm fine with using your arbitrary power to regulate companies in an effective way , but when you leave them no recourse but to agree to your demands or pull their most useful product out of your country, you don't get to turn around and act like they're leaving out of spite.

> Leave them no recourse

They can go along with it and then report the impact of it on their 5bn yearly profit and then they can leave not out of spite.

I suspect it’s a tiny impact on their profits ans this is just an attempt to build support from public. Problem is everybody hates them now. I’d gladly use other products if they didn’t have a monopoly.

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