Why Microsoft Is Stepping Forward to Help Australia

If you’re wondering why on earth Microsoft is making such a statement to Australia in the first place, we have to go back a little bit to when this feud began.

It started when the Australian government said it was planning a new law to help support journalists. The new rule dictates that whenever Facebook or Google used a news article’s snippet in search results or recommendation feeds, it has to pay the original publisher a small fee to ensure they’re not re-using content for free.

Google hit back by saying that the original publisher already receives compensation when people click on a recommended news article to read more. The tech giant then stated that the Australian government had to back down from this law or Google will remove its search engine from the country.

The move was likely a move to shock the Australian government into submission, as 95 percent of the Australian people currently use Google. However, Microsoft saw an opening and stated that it was ready to deliver Bing to all of Australia.

Microsoft’s Statement to the Australian People

At the time, all we had to go on was a thumbs-up from Microsoft and a statement saying that it was ready to go. However, the software giant has since posted a message on the Microsoft News website declaring its support for the law.

As it turns out, Microsoft has talked with the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher. The talks seemed to have ended on good terms, and Microsoft made a series of points regarding why it supports the new Australian law.

One of the points states as such:

Microsoft does then admit that, given that the new law was aimed squarely at Facebook and Google, it wasn’t currently under fire from the new rules. However, if the Australian government did turn its attention to the software giant, it would be ready and willing to pay the asking price.

Microsoft Has Your (Out)back

With Google threatening to leave Australia if the new journalism law passes, Microsoft is ready to step in with Bing whether it’s exempt from the law or not. The question is, will the Australian people be as enthusiastic about using Bing?

If you’re in Australia and want to get started with Bing ahead of time, did you know that you can use the search engine to answer your coding questions?

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