Responding to Google's claim that it will stop linking to New Zealand news sites if the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill passes, ACT Leader David Seymour says:

“The Government is now playing chicken with Google, and New Zealanders stand to lose. ACT has always said this Labour Government Bill wouldn’t work, that’s why we agreed to disagree with our partners on it. We renew our call on National and New Zealand First to dump the Fair News Digital Bargaining Bill.

“If Google make good on their threat, New Zealand audiences and media companies will be worse off. Smaller media outlets in particular would suffer as they would be denied the opportunity to connect with new audiences via search results.

“It is not any government’s job to protect businesses from customers making different choices. The internet has made it easier than ever to report news, and certain outlets need to stop blaming the internet and start looking at their product.

“It is not accurate to describe the bill as any kind of ‘bargaining’. Instead, politicians would decide who gets what. This undermines the separation between government and media which is fundamental to democracy.”

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