By Elishya Perera
SYDNEY, Australia (CWBN)_ Google and Facebook won a key concession as the Australian government revealed details on the world-first law which would force the tech giants to pay news outlets for featuring their articles.
The government said that a power imbalance favours big tech firms, and therefore, the legislation requires Google and Facebook to make a “fair” payment to publishers for the value their stories generate for the platforms.
Australia’s federal treasurer and deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Josh Frydenberg, said, “Australian news media businesses need to be fairly compensated for generating original content and the rules of the digital world should mirror the rules of the physical world.”
However, the initial draft had been altered, since the legislation which was introduced to Australia’s Parliament today (Dec 9) recognised the value provided by the platforms by directing readers to these news websites.
This modification follows a months-long campaign conducted by Google to weaken the legislation, as the tech giant argued that news outlets also benefit from additional readership online when articles are featured on platforms.
Facebook, on the other hand, took a different approach, and threatened to block Australians from sharing any news on their social media platform, if the law was passed. However, the firm has moderated it stance following the modification, and the managing director of Facebook Australia, Will Easton said the company would continue to “engage through the upcoming parliamentary process” with the intention of reaching “a workable framework to support Australia’s news ecosystem.”
