Google criticizes Microsoft for backing US law that pays for news

Google criticized its rival Microsoft in a blog post on Friday, accusing it of “returning to its usual offensive rivalry playbook” and “lobbying regulations that benefit its interests” after the latter endorsed legislation that seeks to make big technology companies like Google and Facebook pay media publishers to include content. on their platforms.In a blog post, Global Affairs vice-president Kent Walker wrote that Microsoft was trying to “repress” Google and was “even determined to break the open web in an attempt to attack a competitor.” Last month, Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote a blog post demanding duplication of Australia’s News Media Bargaining code.

Walker said “it was no coincidence” that Microsoft’s interest in attacking the company came shortly after the Solarwinds attack, which left many companies in a state of shock at a time when they allowed tens of thousands of their customers – including US government agencies, NATO partners, banks, non-profit organizations, providers telephone, social services, the police, the fire and rescue services, hospitals and, possibly, the media – which will be caught up in Microsoft’s major crimes, ”he said.

He also pointed out that the company has been warned about errors in its systems and is aware that they are being exploited. “(Now) they are doing damage control while their customers are arguing over fetching pieces of the so-called Great Email Robbery,” he wrote on a blog post. Smith was due to testify before a small antitrust committee at the United States House on the subject.

Suspecting that Microsoft paid “less money in the media industry” than Walker, Walker said the company had shifted its journalists to AI bots instead. He added that Google would continue to work with news organizations and policy makers to strengthen journalism, even though “Microsoft is trying to disrupt”.

Microsoft later published a statement of evidence written by Smith before the Housing Committee on Justice, the Antitrust Subcommittee, the Commercial Committee, and Administrative Law. “Where technology undermines the life of the media for free – as it is – then we must pursue new solutions to restore healthy journalism on which our democracy depends,” Smith said.

He also said that although Google and Facebook have benefited greatly from the removal of television, radio and print advertising – to digital, Google has been the biggest winner. He added that Google had taken a third of all digital advertising revenue in the US by 2020., increasing its advertising revenue to $ 147 billion since its inception two decades ago.

Smith also quoted Jon Fortt of Fortune, who wrote in 2008, “Google News redirects readers to Google’s major search engine, where they conduct ad-targeted search. And that’s a good business. Think of Google News as a $ 100 million search engine. ”

Claiming that car delivery was important, news organizations found it difficult to make money on that road because “most of the profits were highlighted by Google ‘which eventually became the” first page “of the news and” had student relations and stories that let content content, “Smith testified in front of the House.

You can read all of Smith’s testimonies, as well as his recommendations on what corrective action should be taken, at Microsoft’s On The Issues Blog.