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Google threatening to pull search from Australia was the most obvious bluff I've ever seen from any company. A total embarrassment, everyone saw right through it.

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If they actually did something like that, they could kiss their GCP, Google Docs, etc... contracts goodbye. Especially with government customers. They'd lose an entire country not just for search, but just about every other service they offer.

>GCP, Google Docs, etc... contracts goodbye. Especially with government customers

They've already done that, Google's market share in government is approaching zero. They just aren't a B2B company, unlike Microsoft

Government procurement processes are allergic to buying products. They insist on purchasing solutions.

That's fair enough though isn't it? Products are for people, organisations want solutions

You’re not wrong, even when the people working in the organisation just want a product.

From what I understand of the law, they wouldn't be able to offer those services anyway. The law essentially boils down to: "The following services (Google and Facebook for now) must pay per hyperlink for anything newsworthy."

It's not a bluff.

They'd just redirect users to the google.com site. So they'd keep roughly the same revenue, just remove the Australian operations.

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