Google is seemingly wiping its hands when it comes to doing anything about breaking New Zealand suppression laws in a prominent case last year, but a legal expert says it's time to hold the tech giant to account.
Google backtracked on promises to review its procedures after it breached the name suppression ordered for the man accused of killing British backpacker Grace Millane.
Justice Minister Andrew Little and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with Google representatives immediately after the incident and expressed their concern about the breach. At the time, Google told the Government it would take measures to ensure it doesn't breach New Zealand's suppression laws.
But when Mr Little asked for an update recently, and after receiving no response, Google's New Zealand government affairs manager, Ross Young, yesterday emailed the minister and said they had looked at its systems - adding the case was unique as the case had been extensively reported by international media.
Mr Young said Google respected New Zealand law and the company was engaging with local stakeholders, to which Mr Little said the response was "unacceptable" .
The Government is now seeking advice on its next steps.
Netsafe chairman Rick Shera, who is also a lawyer and has advised the Prime Minister before, told TVNZ1's Breakfast today the Government needs to "put their feet to the fire and say "well, you're operating in New Zealand - abide by our laws".
The Justice Minister spoke about his meeting with Google, after the internet giant emailed the name of the man accused of killing Grace Millane to subscribers.
After the court appearance last year, Google sent out alerts by email to consumers of trending headlines from around the world, one included the name of the suppressed murder accused.
Mr Shera said Google can't hide behind someone else's material because they actually sent the email out to everyone.
"It's not a passive, people going out and searching the internet and finding it somewhere. It's Google actually putting it into their [email inbox]."
Breakfast host John Campbell said if TVNZ did the same thing it would "be in the stuff that's going into Lake Taupō at the moment", adding that Google seems intent on not dealing with the breach.
Mr Shera said, "it's part of the wider problem that we have with these large multinational companies which are clearly operating in New Zealand".
"They are monetising our data here in New Zealand and making a lot of money out of it. They put a lot of effort into New Zealand, they have operations here in New Zealand, and so on, so this argument that 'we're too big' or that 'we don't operate in New Zealand', I think, is one that we need to dispense with."
He said it would be difficult to be across laws of every country they operate in, but that's the choice they make, quoting a line from Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility."
"If you become that big and if you come to the idea of focusing in on separate countries then you should be abiding by their law," Mr Shera said. "They need to take account of the fact that they have a big impact.
"There are plenty of things that Google have done which are great things, but there are things where the line gets crossed and we have to say "look, that's enough". We need to make sure that you do comply with what our society has said are our parametres, our laws."
Mr Shera said Google was being singled out because of the specific case, but the issue was something that needed a wider look at, too.
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