‘Desperate’ Google’s shock threat to Aussies

US tech giant Google unleashed a “scare campaign” on millions of its Australian users on Monday, claiming its free services, search results, and users’ income and personal data could be put at risk if it is made to pay for news content.

In an open letter, the trillion-dollar firm warned free services would be “hurt” and internet searches be made “dramatically worse” by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) news bargaining code, announced two weeks ago.

But ACCC chairman Rod Sims hit back at the company’s “misinformation”, and said

Google would “not be required to charge Australians for the use of its free services … unless it (chose) to do so”.

Critics slammed Google’s new campaign as “balderdash” and called it a “desperate” attempt to avoid paying media companies for their content.

Both Google and Facebook face changes as part of the

ACCC’s news code, which will require them to share revenue obtained from news content used on their sites.

The measures would also include fines for noncompliance and force transparency around the algorithms firms use to rank content.

Google Australia managing director Mel Silva on Monday claimed the company would be forced to hand over users’ search data to news media companies and give them information that would “help them artificially inflate their ranking” above other websites.

Google’s Australian arm collected $4.8 billion in revenue last year, including $4.3 billion from digital advertising.