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THE WATCHDOG WANTS REASSURANCE THAT INTERNET GIANTS ARE PLAYING NICE WITH TRADITIONAL NEWS OUTLETS.

INTERNET GIANTS LIKE Facebook, Google and Twitter have been in the spotlight for their role in politics, but now Australia wants to investigate these companies for a very different reason — their impact on the country’s news services. With traditional print media being squeezed out by online news sources, and more advertising money being siphoned into digital media leading to journalism job cuts, the Federal Government has instructed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to probe into the effect distributors like Facebook and Google have on competition in the media and advertising industry.

“We will examine whether platforms are exercising market power in commercial dealings to the detriment of consumers, media content creators and advertisers,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said in a statement. Although Google is looking “forward to engaging with this process”, Facebook is yet comment.

This investigation is part of the media reform negotiations that took place in Parliament earlier this year that resulted in the country’s big media houses getting the freedom to boost their market share. The report is due in 2019.