Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. (credit: Microsoft)

Google has portrayed itself as a defender of the open Internet as it battles an Australian proposal to force Google and Facebook to pay Australian news organizations to link to their articles. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has argued that the ability to link to content without paying is "fundamental to how the Web operates."

Google has warned that if the proposal becomes law, the company may exit the Australian search market altogether.

But Microsoft, one of Google's top search competitors, isn't rallying to defend the principle of free linking. "While Microsoft is not subject to the legislation currently pending, we’d be willing to live by these rules," Microsoft said of the Australian proposal in a statement to Reuters.