Is Google leaving Australia? What will Facebook & Google do when Australian lawmakers force them to pay up.

If you have not heard, the Australian parliament has tabled a law to force Google & Facebook to pay for content that is being shared on their platform. This has pushed many controversies and the first time ever in the entire world so much so that Google has threatened to pull out of the Australian market.

While we know that Google will never leave, it has made many marketers think of the possibility of ranking on other search engines such as Bing or Duckduckgo.

The world is watching as many other countries are waiting to jump onto the buffet table if this is ever successful.

In a blink of an eye, these have been the solutions that Google & Facebook have come up with:

1. Google News Showcase was launched recently with a monthly subscription that will be shared with Australian Publishes
2. There are still no updates on Google Search results where new articles show on organic searches. Google might just tell news publishers to “DonotIndex”
3. Facebook has gone the other way and has banned us (the everyday users) from sharing any articles from any Australian publishers as per the image below
4. Here are some links if you are interested in knowing more about this
5. https://about.google/google-in-australia/an-open-letter/
6. https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/australia/answering-your-top-questions-about-google-news-showcase
7. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/facebook-to-restrict-sharing-or-viewing-news-in-australia/13166208

Facebook has removed all posts on Facebook Pages from Australian publishers. Even older posts have been removed. This will affect your Facebook page if you regularly share or repost articles from Australian publishers. A tip would be to write up a mini blog on your website with the same content and post your website link on your Facebook page. This will help drive traffic towards your website for readers that want to read what the Australian publisher has to offer.

The good news is that it looks like Google is here to stay in Australia. So we do not have to change to Bing or Duckduckgo for now.