- Treasurer Josh Freinberg and Facebook say key aspects of the law have been compromised.
- Under the agreement, Facebook and Google will not be penalized until they reach some agreements with local media companies to pay for the news.
- Tech companies will also get two more months to broker the deals
SYDNEY: Facebook and the Australian government on Tuesday struck a deal on the world’s first law that requires tech companies to pay media companies that pave the way for the restoration of Australian news pages.
Treasurer Josh Freinberg and Facebook said there was a compromise on key aspects of the law, which was strongly opposed by tech companies.
Will Aston, Managing Director of Facebook Australia, said: “As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism, and in the coming days, Facebook for Australians. But we will restore the news. “
The social media firm sparked global outrage last week by canceling news stories for its Australian users and inadvertently blocking a series of non-news Facebook pages linked to everything from cancer charities to emergency response services. Gave birth
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has angrily accused Facebook of deciding to keep Australia “unfriendly”.
But the last-minute compromise – as Parliament appears to be passing the law this week – means that Facebook and Google, whoever was targeted, will not be fined as long as they report Reach some agreements with local media companies to pay.
They will also get two more months to broker these agreements.
“We are delighted to have reached an agreement with the Australian Government and have appreciated the constructive discussions we have had,” Aston said.
Setting an example
Tech companies have strongly opposed legislation for this purpose, fearing it could set an international precedent that could jeopardize their business models.
“There is no doubt that Australia has been a proxy war for the world.”
In particular, the companies objected to rules that required negotiations with media companies and gave an independent Australian arbitrator the right to enforce the settlement.
Google wanted to avoid the idea that the platform would allow anyone to link to it. Pay to make their flagship search engine unworkable.
Facebook – which rarely relies on news content – said that being forced to pay for news doesn’t make sense.
“We have an agreement under which we will support our selected publishers, including small and local publishers,” said Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice president for global news partnerships.
Despite earlier threats to withdraw its services from Australia over the law, Google had already softened its stance and struck a multimillion-dollar deal with a host of local media companies, including two of the largest. : Rupert Murdoch News Corporation and Nine Entertainment.
As the European Union, Canada and other jurisdictions move to regulate the sector, Facebook and Google are still likely to agree agreements with media around the world.
Since their emergence at the turn of the century, Google and Facebook have become largely unorganized and have become two of the largest and most profitable companies in the world.
But scandals involving misinformation, privacy breaches, data breaches and their virtual monopoly on online advertising have caught the eye.
According to the country’s competition watchdog, Australian advertisers today go to Google for ہر 100, and Facebook 24 for every ہر 100.
Critics of the law say it is punishing successful companies and struggling but is tantamount to snatching money from traditional politically connected media outlets.
He also lamented that there was no need in law for the money raised by media companies from Facebook and Google to be spent on promoting public interest journalism instead of just increasing profits.
Thousands of journalism jobs and dozens of newsletters have been lost in Australia alone over the past decade as the sector has seen digital players flow into advertising revenue.
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