January 22, 2021

Andrew Campbell 

The proposed law, News Media Bargaining Code, designed to help Australia's struggling media industry has accused tech giants like Google and Facebook benefit from its work without paying for it. Thus, Google and Facebook will be forced to negotiate and share their revenues generated from news content with the local publishers.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australian lawmakers argued tech companies like Google and Facebook have used their search engines and ripped off the news media across Australia. The local news organizations have been forced to reduce service, close temporarily, or shut down permanently. The proposed law would require Google and Facebook to negotiate with local news broadcasters for agreement. The Australian government will appoint an arbitrator to make the decision only if no consensus can be reached. Reportedly it will benefit the Guardian Australia edition, ABC News, SBS News, and local newspapers. 

The proposed law had its Senate hearing on January 22. It will be debated by Australia’s Senate and is expected to be voted soon. Both Google and Facebook have called the proposed code unfair and threatened they would limit their search engines in Australia.

Under new copyright laws, on January 21, Google agreed to pay news publications in France for the use of their content online. Similar incidents will be replicated elsewhere in the world.

Photo:Webshot.