Australia has done it! Facebook and Google will be forced to pay for the news – El Financiero
parliament Australia Agree on The first law in the world to force digital giants like Facebook and Google to pay local publishers for their news content, A measure that could lead to more regulatory actions globally to reduce its power.
Legislation was passed on Thursday (local time) and Ensure that “media companies get fair compensation for the content they create”Australian Treasury Minister Josh Freidenberg said in a statement.
“The law is an important partial economic reform, which is a reform that has drawn world attention to the Australian Parliament,” he said.
Regulators around the world are watching the legislation closely as they grapple with the dominance of advertising on Facebook and Google, who It now faces the prospect of taking similar sequential measures around the world. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he discussed the new law with the leaders of India, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.
American tech giants have bargained hard with the Australian government to obtain concessions.
Alphabet-owned Google said last year that if the law is enacted, it will shut down its search engine in Australia. Meanwhile, Facebook blocked the news on its Australian platform in opposition to the legislation, a dramatic move that led Morrison to condemn.
After talks with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, the government agreed to amend the legislation and the social media platform said it would restart the news.
Among the major concessions, the government said it will take into account the trade agreements that Google and Facebook reach with news companies before deciding whether to abide by the law, and will also provide them with a month’s notice. The platforms also bought more time to reach agreements with media publishers before forcing them to submit to final show arbitration as a last resort.
Google has independently struck deals to pay Australian news outlets for their content, including News Corp, and Facebook is doing the same.
“The government is pleased to see the progress Google has made and, more recently, Facebook’s progress in reaching trade agreements with Australian news outlets,” Friedenberg said.
The Treasury will review the new law within a year to ensure it works as intended.
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