Australia is set to force Google and Facebook to pay for news content
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The Australian government said on Friday it plans to give Google and Facebook three months to negotiate with Australian media businesses fair pay for news content.
The government has released a draft mandatory code of conduct that aims to succeed where other countries have failed in making the global digital giants pay for news siphoned from commercial media companies.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Google and Facebook would be the first digital platforms targeted by the proposed legislation but others could follow."Nothing less than the future of the Australian media landscape is at stake with these changes," he added.
If the US-based platforms could not agree with the Australian media businesses on pricing after three months, arbitrators would be appointed to make a binding decision, the draft said.The draft will be open to consultation until August 28, with the legislation to be introduced to Parliament soon after, Frydenberg said.
As well as payment, the code covers issues including access to user data and transparency of algorithms used to rank and present media content. Breaches of the code could attract penalties of up to 10% of the platform's annual turnover, or a 10 million Australian dollars ($7.2 milllion) fine.Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Mel Silva said the code discounts the significant value Google provided in free clicks on publishers' content.
"Our hope was that the code would be forward thinking and the process would create incentives for both publishers and digital platforms to negotiate and innovate for a better future, so we are deeply disappointed and concerned the draft code does not achieve this," Silva said in a statement.
"Instead, the government's heavy-handed intervention threatens to impede Australia's digital economy and impacts the services we can deliver to Australians," Silva added.When Spain passed laws on licensing links to news sites in 2014 Google withdrew its Google News service from the country entirely, and in 2018 when the EU floated the possibility of introducing a similar so-called "link
Facebook Australia and New Zealand managing director Will Easton said in a statement his company was reviewing the code to "understand the impact it will have on the industry, our services and our investment in the news ecosystem in Australia."
Frydenberg said the motive was not to protect Australian businesses from competition or disruption but to ensure they are paid fairly for original content.Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
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