rlex Posted January 27, 2021 Posted January 27, 2021 The launch of the News Showcase as early as next month is the latest tactic by the tech giant that has launched a high-level campaign against legislation planned by the Australian government to make it pay local news providers for content that appears in its search engine. Misha Ketchell, editor of The Conversation, said Wednesday that it had been approached by Google "to resume talks about launching the News Showcase product as soon as possible, in February. We are working with them on this, " Reuters reports . Google announced plans to launch News Showcase in Australia in June last year, signing agreements with seven local publishers, including The Conversation, for content. Subsequently, the launch was delayed amid discussions on regulatory conditions. The decision to continue with the launch was apparent evidence of Google's willingness to conduct its own content offerings, denying the need for government-mandated legislation. An Alphabet Inc. spokesman declined to comment. "If Google can demonstrate that it can reach an agreement with some publishers, then its purpose is to show that business arrangements can be made without legislative intervention , " said Derek Wilding, a professor at the Center for Technology University in Sydney. Mel Silva, Google Australia's chief executive, said in a parliamentary session last week that he would remove the pilot search tool from Australia if the laws, the first of its kind in the world, were implemented. In a post on his local site, Silva says that Google opposes payment for displaying links to articles, not for publishing news. "Right now, no website or search engine pays to connect people to other sites through links ," Silva said in the undated post. "The law would change that, making Google pay to provide links for the first time in our history" .
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