Google has tapped Australian comedian Greta Lee Jackson to help fight the proposed news media bargaining code.
The video is the latest stage of the tech giant’s campaign against the draft code which aims to govern how Google and Facebook pay news publishers for their content.
In the video, which is meant to help the public understand the "confusing" proposed law, Jackson says forcing the digital platforms, which drive traffic to news sites, to pay for news stories is similar to asking a bus driver who drops off passengers at a restaurant to also pay the restaurant owner.
Jackson focuses on the code’s use of final-offer arbitration, which Google argues is an “extreme” system to use in negotiations.
“Even when she [the bus driver] agrees to pay and starts to negotiate how much she should pay, nothing she brings to the table is counted as the negotiations,” Jackson says in the video.
“Not the fact that she’s delivering customers to the restaurant, not the cost of running the bus, nothing.
“What’s more absurd is that she’ll also be asked to cover some of the restaurant's costs too, like half their electricity bill. I may be a comedian but this is no laughing matter.”
We asked comedian Greta Lee Jackson to help illustrate something serious. Google isn’t against a code of conduct that governs how we work with Aussie news publishers, but the draft code is absurdly one-sided. Learn why this matters → https://t.co/dGOVSXOedd. #AFairCode pic.twitter.com/NhoGrbQNld
— googledownunder (@googledownunder) September 28, 2020
The video has been published to Google Australia’s Twitter page and coincides with a letter by Google Australia managing director Mel Silva also picking apart the use of final-offer arbitration.
Jackson has featured in TV shows such as the ABC’s Tonightly with Tom Ballard and Ten’s Drunk History Australia. She also has a YouTube page, and recently went viral for a video poking fun of celebrities’ response to the pandemic.
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