Microsoft has moved to capitalise on Google’s threat to shut its search engine in Australia, throwing its weight behind efforts to make Big Tech pay for news content and offering to transfer small businesses to its rival service Bing at no cost. From a report: The Seattle-based company on Wednesday slammed Google’s threat to exit Australia [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source] over the news media bargaining code and said it fully supported a draft law aimed at forcing technology groups to pay news providers for content. “One thing is clear: while other tech companies may sometimes threaten to leave Australia, Microsoft will never make such a threat,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, in a statement. “We are committed to supporting the country’s national security and economic success.”

Canberra’s proposed news media bargaining code would introduce binding arbitration and non-discrimination clauses to protect publishers and force Google and Facebook to negotiate payments for carrying their content. Google has a 94.5 per cent market share in search in Australia, while Microsoft’s Bing search engine holds 3.6 per cent, according to StatCounter, a web analytics company. Microsoft’s decision to throw down the gauntlet will complicate Google’s aggressive lobbying campaign against the draft legislation, which it has called “unworkable” and “unreasonable.” Mel Silva, Google Australia’s chief executive, said last month that if the code became law, Google would have “no real choice but to stop providing search in Australia.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Microsoft Slams Google Over Threat To Shut Search Engine in Australia