As a significant longtime supporter of New Zealand’s news industry, we are deeply concerned about the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill. This Bill proposes a “link tax” that would require Google to pay simply for linking to news articles. While Google supports efforts to foster a sustainable future for New Zealand news, this Bill is not the right approach. We have outlined these concerns transparently in public submissions and in ongoing consultation with the Government.
We’ve been transparent with the Government that if the Bill were to proceed on its current trajectory and became law, we would be forced to make significant changes to our products and news investments. Specifically, we’d be forced to stop linking to news content on Google Search, Google News, or Discover surfaces in New Zealand and discontinue our current commercial agreements and ecosystem support with New Zealand news publishers.
This is no surprise. The Government should dump Willie Jackson’s bill to tax news links.
The reality is that news stories are a minute fraction of overall revenue for Google. Of course Google will not accept a law that requires them to pay more money for something than they make from it.
On the other hand, the media gain greatly from people being able find their stories through Google. We know this because they can block their stories from Google with a simple line of code. They choose not to, because the extra traffic brings in revenue.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
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