Google opens paid-for Australia news platform in drive to undercut Canberra's content payment law

FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with a Google app icon is seen in front of the displayed Australian flag in this illustration, January 22, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Tech giant Google on Friday launched a platform in Australia offering news it has paid for, striking its own content deals with publishers in a drive to show legislation proposed by Canberra to enforce payments, a world first, is unnecessary.

Only rolled out previously in Brazil and Germany, the News Showcase platform was originally slated for launch last June. But Alphabet Inc-owned Google delayed plans when Canberra moved to make it a legal requirement for Google and Facebook to pay Australian media companies for content, unprecedented anywhere else in the world.