Australia's New Legislation To Make Google, Facebook Pay Media Outlets For News Content; Here's All About It

In a first worldwide, Australia's new legislation will make tech giants Google and Facebook pay media outlets for the news content that appears on their platform. Read on.

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New Delhi: In a first worldwide, Australia has sealed its plan for making giants like Facebook and Google pay to media companies for their news content. The decision aims to protect independent journalism in the time of digital heavy content sharing.  As per the laws about to be taken to the parliament, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg revealed the Tech giants will have to negotiate with local publishers and broadcasters over the amount to be paid for content that appears on their platforms or else, a government-appointed mediator will decide it for them. "This is a huge reform, this is a world first, and the world is watching what happens here in Australia," Frydenberg told reporters in the capital Canberra, news agency Reuters reported. "Our legislation will help ensure that the rules of the digital world mirror the rules of the physical world ... and ultimately sustain our media landscape," he added. The path towards this move has been a long one as it is an outcome of three years of consultation and the companies concerned, in fact, mulled over stopping their services in Australia. Facebook Australia managing director Will Easton stated that the company is going to review the legislation and "engage through the upcoming parliamentary process with the goal of landing on a workable framework to support Australia's news ecosystem". Google's representatives have not presented their view as the company is yet to see the final version of the proposed law.

Tech Giants Under Scanner

Tech giants are under greater scrutiny in several countries especially with respect to the way they deal with hate speech, data usage/protection and their tactics for preventing competition from rising up. Google has to face an official inquiry in the US over allegations of monopolising the search engine space. With news, independent media world over survives on contributions made by readers, and in this light, the move is expected to be significant in strengthening their financial condition as other countries may also decide to follow this route. The final version of the law is said to not affect news distributed on Facebook's Instagram or Google's Youtube. Facebook and Google are also going to be allowed to include the value of clicks their service directed to news websites in the negotiations.