They didn't back down. Back in June 2020, before the draft code was released, Google said they were prepared to share revenue from news.google. But not search

They didn't back down. Back in June 2020, before the draft code was released, Google said they were prepared to share revenue from news.google. But not search. They demonstrated "good faith" by entering into agreements with some news providers, paying them money for news. [0] The AU government then specifically included search in the act's explanatory memorandum. Google then threatened to ban search from Australia. In response to Google threat, the government and Google talked. After the talks, Google withdrew it's threat. The Government claimed Google backed down. Now we read search is excluded. [1] How do you know a politician is lying: his lips are moving. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/business/media/australia-google-pay-for-news.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/business/media/australia-... [1] https://theconversation.com/this-weeks-changes-are-a-win-for-facebook-google-and-the-government-but-what-was-lost-along-the-way-155865 https://theconversation.com/this-weeks-changes-are-a-win-for...