Australian Government Proposes Law to Compel Facebook and Google to Pay for News

In recent years, traditional media companies operating in Australia have suffered huge hits to income streams, such as subscriptions and advertising. 

This is why the Australian government wants the tech giants to abide by a voluntary code. 

The main highlights of the proposed legislation are as under:

• News outlets in Australia can negotiate individually or collectively with Facebook and Google over payment for content used on the tech firms' sites. 
• Other tech firms can be added if they are deemed big enough.
• If the parties cannot agree on the terms of the offer, an arbitrator will decide whose offer is more reasonable.
• If Facebook or Google breach any resulting agreements, they can be fined up to 10 million Australian dollars and attract civil penalties upto $7.4 million.
• Tech firms are further mandated to give notice to media outlets when they change search algorithms in a way affecting the order in which content appears. 
• Tech companies will be required to share their use of consumer data extracted from news content on their sites.

In 2017, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission conducted an investigation on "big tech". The commission sought feedback on the draft until August 28. It now hopes to work with the government and the industry to redraft the law before it goes before Parliament.

Facebook Inc. has retaliated by saying that the social media company will block news sharing on its platforms in Australia if the government passes the law. 

This battle between the internet giants and media companies has happened in other jurisdictions as well. However, the proposed legislation in Australia details the most expansive measures to deal with the issue.