Google a suspect in ‘scare tactics’

MPs have been receiving thousands of ­letters of opposition to the proposed media legislation as part of alleged dirty tactics from tech giant Google.

A scare campaign against Australia’s media bargaining code has escalated, with federal MPs and senators receiving thousands of ­letters of opposition to the proposed legislation as part of alleged dirty tactics from tech giant Google.

Senators and MPs have been inundated with emails, which each contain the same body of text calling the mandatory bargaining code an “assault on Australia’s democracy”. They stem from a Change.org petition from anonymous YouTuber “Economics Explained”, which declares “Australia’s democracy is under attack” and calls on its 40,000 signatories to write to each member of the Senate, House of Representatives and the ACCC until the proposed law is “dead in its entirety”.

“As it stands, this proposed bill is an assault on Australia’s democracy,” the letter reads. “If online platforms like YouTube and Google are legally mandated to disclose the inner workings of their systems to large news publishers, then parliament would effectively be enabling these large news publishers to unfairly rank their content at the top of the YouTube and Google search results.

“As a direct result, large news corporations would effectively be able to suppress articles, videos, opinions, ideas and all other online content they disagree with (like videos from YouTube creators, for example).”

NSW senator Tony Sheldon said his inbox had been flooded by messages from YouTube users, many of whom were not Australian citizens.

“I am the target audience of this scare-letter campaign and I am not buying it. And no one bought them crying poor this week either. Australians know how big their profits are and how little tax they pay here,” he said.

“I would be interested to know if this campaign is to any extent being funded by Google or its associated companies.”

When contacted for comment, the anonymous person behind the “Economics Explained” YouTube account denied Google was behind the campaign.

It comes after Google called on its users to campaign against the regulation using the hashtag #AFairCode, and told YouTube users: “We’ll be in touch in the coming days with more information on how to get involved.”

Under the draft mandatory code announced last month, the tech giants will have to pay media outlets for news, and face fines of up to $10m if they fail to treat Australian media companies fairly.

“We’ve been letting our creators, partners and users know about the proposed law through many channels such as our open letter and on our home page, but we’re not involved with this petition or email campaign in any way,” a Google spokesman said.