One lawyer says the proposed code could actually hurt the news publishers it was supposedly intended to protect.

Australia's high profile legal standoff with the tech giant stems from a proposed measure that would force Google and Facebook to pay news companies to use their content, which drives Web traffic to their platforms.

Google said last Friday it would block the search engine in Australia if the move were to go ahead.

But Australian lawyer Hannah Marshall says it's not just the idea of paying news cos that's got Google or riled up, it's the part of the definition which says that they must pay to link to the news content, which is really causing all the problems at the moment.

Calling the proposal quote absurd, Marshall says it would be unfeasible for the tech giant on did.

It would be harmful to the news publishers themselves if Google were to leave Australia and it's very valuable to the news publishers.

The audience that they get from Google and Facebook is what drives their advertising revenue and which really is what keeps them commercially viable, and so without that they're very much a lost news.

Publishers in Australia reported toe get upwards of 50% of their audience via Google and Facebook, and so that's why it's so important to them to maintain access to that audience.

Google is now reviving plans to launch its own news website in Australia, according to a local media outlet contracted to provide content for the site.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on the reported plans on Thursday.

Australia also announced it may soon let Internet users choose what data they give to Google on other big tech companies.