Pay for news, says new media law

Australia passed a ground-breaking law yesterday, forcing tech giants to pay for news shared on their networks.

After months of negotiation, the government agreed to water down elements of the new law in exchange for Facebook and Google agreeing to payment deals with struggling media firms – seen as a potential model for companies worldwide who have seen their advertising revenues decimated by the rise of internet platforms.

What other countries do:

▶ The British government announced a new Digital Markets Unit in November to introduce and enforce “a new code to govern the behaviour of platforms that currently dominate the market, such as Google and Facebook”.

The unit is set to begin work in April. Though it will primarily look at tech firms’ use of data for advertising, it is also charged with finding ways to support news publishers.

▶ Canada appears keen to follow the Australian lead. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the issue directly with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison by phone on Tuesday. His office said: “They agreed to coordinate efforts to ensure the revenues of web giants are shared more fairly with creators and media.”

▶ The European Union is already gaining compensation for its media companies after introducing “neighbouring rights” in 2019, which call for payment for showing news content in internet searches.

Google strongly opposed the law, but has lately signed deals with newspapers and media groups in France to pay digital copyright payments.

▶ In the US, the debate on tech regulation is currently focused on the burning question of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 1996, which frees tech companies from any liability. But momentum is also growing behind a Bill which would allow newspapers to form a collective bargaining group to negotiate with tech platforms. –