News Corp Australia has called on the ACCC to break up Google, accusing the company of abusing its position citing market dominance in relation to advertising.
In an 80-page document submitted to the ACCC, the Australian arm of Ruper Murdoch’s media empire accused Google of abusing its position and called for its search business to be separated from the rest of the company.
News Corp refers to Google as an “‘unavoidable trading partner’ for consumers, media content providers and advertisers alike.”
The document echoes previous submissions to the ACCC’s digital platforms inquiry.
It reiterated that Google’s business practises threaten the sustainability of news and journalism, something which Google has vehemently denied.
The regulatory body has recommended in a draft proposal for the government to establish an overseeing body which would manage how Google and other companies like Facebook rank ads and news articles — requiring them to unveil their algorithms.
Both Google and Facebook have pushed back against this, stating that they don’t play favourites and are keeping their algorithms to themselves.
This new demand goes further than the ACCC, calling for Google to either completely divest its search business from the rest of its company, or functionally separate it by creating a separate operations team.
It is a big ask, and News Corp admits that the ACCC can’t possibly achieve it on its own, and is requesting international governments to coordinate to achieve this aim.
News Corp isn’t alone in its desire to break up the tech giant, earlier this week US Senator Elizabeth Warren, running for president in 2020, has promised to break up Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
ACCC chairman, Rob Sims, said he was looking at the submission “with an open mind.”
The final report on the digital platforms inquiry is expected on June 3, 2019.
