Trends Wide
No Result
View All Result
Contact Us
  • Trending
  • Australia
  • Economie
  • Gaming
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Trending
  • Australia
  • Economie
  • Gaming
  • Cryptocurrency
No Result
View All Result
Trends Wide
No Result
View All Result
Home Australia

Australia passes world-first new law forcing Facebook and Google to pay for news

souhaib by souhaib
February 25, 2021
Reading Time: 8 mins read
0


Australia has passed a world-first law designed to make Google and Facebook pay media organisations for hosting their news content.

The bill passed the senate on Thursday with bipartisan support after politicians agreed to water down key elements of the law under pressure from Facebook.

Ministers have painted the move as a victory over the tech giants – saying Facebook’s news blockade of the country will end tomorrow and that both Facebook and Google are signing deals worth millions of dollars with news publishers.

But critics say Australia has capitulated – taking the teeth out of the legislation and handing tech companies the upper hand in negotiations with media firms over advertising revenue, when the law was supposed to ‘level the playing field’.

The move also sets and international precedent that other countries such as the UK, US and EU member states will now find it difficult to go beyond.

Australia has passed a world-first law to make Google and Facebook pay media organisations for hosting their news content. Pictured: Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

The changes give the tech companies extra time to negotiate deals with publishers and allow them to dodge the rules if they make a ‘significant contribution’ to journalism by handing over enough cash.

Facebook agreed to re-instate Australian news pages after the amendments were announced on Wednesday.

Critics said the government had ‘buckled’ to bullying from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg but Rod Sims, the head of the country’s competition watchdog, said the changes simply clarified some of Facebook’s ‘misconceptions’.

‘If what the government’s done is give things that mean a lot more to Facebook than they do the government, then that’s how good deals are done,’ he said.

Facebook’s Vice President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, the former UK Deputy Prime Minister, welcomed the changes which allow mediation between a tech platform and a media company for two months before final-offer arbitration.

‘Thankfully, after further discussion, the Australian government has agreed to changes that mean fair negotiations are encouraged without the looming threat of heavy-handed and unpredictable arbitration,’ he wrote in a blog post.

Australia’s new law was designed to tackle the huge power imbalance between big tech companies which dominate their markets and soak up the lion’s share of advertising revenue by forcing them to pay for the news content they host and reveal some of their closely-guarded algorithms and data. 

Google and Facebook had led opposition to the changes, fearing it would create international precedent that would threaten their business models.

Initially, Google threatened to pull its search engine from Australia altogether – but backed down last week and began doing deals with media outlets.

Facebook went further, blocking all news content in a hastily-organised ban that also brought down charity pages, emergency services providing Covid information, domestic violence shelters and missing persons groups.

The ban even brought down the site’s own page for a short time.

Facebook agreed to restore news and negotiate deals similar to the ones Google has struck, but will do so with increased bargaining power after changes were agreed.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (right) hailed the news as a victory and said Facebook will negotiate with Australian publishers over their content

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (right) hailed the news as a victory and said Facebook will negotiate with Australian publishers over their content

Google has been told about the changes and has described them as ‘sensible.’

Facebook and Google still face the prospect of having to agree deals with media around the world, as the European Union, Canada and other jurisdictions move to regulate the sector.

Since their emergence around the turn of the century, Google and Facebook have been largely unregulated and have grown into two of the world’s largest and most profitable companies.

But a string of scandals about misinformation, privacy violations, data harvesting and their virtual monopoly on online advertising has triggered the attention of watchdogs.

For every $100 spent by Australian advertisers online today, $49 goes to Google and $24 to Facebook, according to the country’s competition watchdog.

Facebook last week blocked all news content in Australia in protest at the new laws, sparking international outcry and calls for tougher regulations

Facebook last week blocked all news content in Australia in protest at the new laws, sparking international outcry and calls for tougher regulations

Critics of the law have said it is punishing successful companies and amounts to a money grab by struggling but politically connected traditional media.

RELATED POSTS

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrive at the State Memorial Service for Prince Philip

Cop Derek Chauvin is taken to prison and placed on suicide watch after being found guilty

Westpac bank slashes in half its property price growth forecast for 2022 tipping new investor rules

They also lament that there is no requirement in the law that money gained by the media companies from Facebook and Google be spent on expanding public interest journalism rather than just boost profits.

Thousands of journalism jobs and scores of news outlets have been lost in Australia alone over the past decade as the sector watched advertising revenue flow to the digital players.

Facebook’s news ban last week sent shockwaves around the world and sparked campaigns to delete the app.

‘Delete Facebook’, ‘Boycott Zuckerberg’ and ‘Facebook We Need To Talk’ began trending on rival site Twitter.

David Cicilline, a Democrat politician from Rhode Island in the US, even went so far as to say ‘Facebook is not compatible with democracy’ as users were also urged to give up Instagram and WhatsApp because Facebook owns them.

British MP Julian Knight said Facebook appeared to be using Australia as a ‘test case’ for how democracies would react to having news banned, and called for legislators around the world to bring the tech giant ‘to heel’.

ADVERTISEMENT

Among those urging users to delete the app was Stephen Scheeler, former Facebook Australia CEO, who slammed the ‘alarming’ move and accused Mark Zuckerberg of being motivated by ‘money, power, and not [by the] good.’

Critics also said Facebook’s ban would lead to the proliferation of conspiracy theories and misinformation – which the platform claims to be tackling.

Australian ministers (Prime Minister Scott Morrison, right, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, left, and Communication Minister Paul Fletcher, rear) have agreed to make four concessions to the law which will make it more beneficial to Facebook

Australian ministers (Prime Minister Scott Morrison, right, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, left, and Communication Minister Paul Fletcher, rear) have agreed to make four concessions to the law which will make it more beneficial to Facebook

Instead of seeing posts from the social media giant, users clicking on its own Facebook page were instead met with a message saying ‘no posts yet’.

In a spectacular case of buck-passing, Facebook then attempted to blame the errors on the Australian government, saying it mirrors the ‘broad and vague’ definition of ‘news’ in its new law.

Mr Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher drew up Australia’s law after a three-year inquiry by Australia’s competition regulator, the ACCC, which  found Google and Facebook have ‘an imbalance in bargaining power’ when dealing with news companies.  

The code was intended to apply to Facebook NewsFeed and Google Search – but other services such as Instagram and YouTube can be added if a bargaining power imbalance arises.

In addition to payment for content, the measures would also force transparency around the closely guarded algorithms that tech firms use to rank content.

The code will require Google and Facebook to give publishers 14 days notice of any algorithm changes that are likely to have a significant impact on their traffic.

Under a two-way value model, the payment for content would take into account the value that Google and Facebook provide to news organisations by driving traffic to their sites.

What is the bargaining code and why is it needed?

WHY IS IT NEEDED?

Google and Facebook derive a benefit from the ability to make Australian news content available to their users.

Australian news businesses have had to accept commercial deals with the platforms that are less favourable than they would otherwise agree to.

Intervention is needed to address this imbalance because of the public benefit of news and the importance of a strong independent media in a well-functioning democracy.

For every $100 spent by Australian advertisers online today, $49 goes to Google and $24 to Facebook, according to the country’s competition watchdog.

WHAT IS THE CODE?

The government wants good faith commercial deals to be struck outside the code.

But if the platforms and news organisations are unable or unwilling to reach an agreement ‘final offer arbitration’ will take place.

The arbiters will take into account the benefits traditional news media businesses get by having eyeballs on their product.

The digital platforms will also need to adhere to a series of minimum standards.

WHO IS INCLUDED?

* Facebook and Google.

* ABC, SBS and Australian commercial news media organisations.

Source: AAP 



Source link

Tags: dailymail australia
souhaib

souhaib

Related Posts

Australia

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrive at the State Memorial Service for Prince Philip

April 21, 2021
Australia

Cop Derek Chauvin is taken to prison and placed on suicide watch after being found guilty

April 21, 2021
Australia

Westpac bank slashes in half its property price growth forecast for 2022 tipping new investor rules

April 21, 2021
Australia

Kmart Australia launches affordable winter clothing collection made from recycled materials

April 21, 2021
Australia

Patissez: Foodies are flocking to this Aussie cafe to enjoy platters of crispy LOADED tacos

April 21, 2021
Australia

Aussies are urged to get a Covid jab to prevent mass deaths

April 21, 2021
Next Post

Covid-19: GCSE and A-level grades decided by teachers, and more positive jab news

New Zealand beat Australia by four runs in Dunedin to take 2-0 lead in T20 International series

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended Stories

Northside Frosty Boot Winter M Toddler/Little Kid/Big Kid Boot

January 22, 2021

Carrie Symonds’s best friend Nimco Ali was given a £350-a-day government role

December 5, 2020

Prince Philip dies: Joe Biden among world leaders paying tribute to Duke of Edinburgh

April 9, 2021
Trends Wide

Recent Posts

  • ‘We let you down’: Liverpool’s Billionaire American owner’s grovelling apology over Super League
  • Ohio shooting: Columbus police shoot dead black teenage girl
  • NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrive at the State Memorial Service for Prince Philip

Categories

  • Australia
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Deals
  • Discounts
  • Economie
  • Euro
  • Gaming
  • News
  • Sports
  • Switzerland
  • Trending
  • Uncategorized

Contact

  • Contact US
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

© 2021 Trends wide

No Result
View All Result
  • Category
    • Business
  • Landing Page
  • Buy JNews
  • Support Forum
  • Pre-sale Question
  • Contact Us

© 2021 Trends wide