Australia is set to pass new rules forcing major tech conglomerates to continue paying media companies to use their content on social media platforms, government officials announced Thursday. .
The News Bargaining Incentive is pressuring big tech companies such as Meta and Google to renew paid partnerships with Australian media companies or face fines. The exact size of the fine is unknown.
“Digital platforms receive significant economic benefits from Australia and have a social and economic responsibility to contribute to Australians' access to quality journalism,” Stephen Jones, Deputy Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, said in a statement. said.
Jones said at a press conference that the social media platforms and search engines targeted in the charges are Australian-based companies with revenues of more than 250 million Australian dollars, or about $160 million.
Tech companies that actively partner or renew partnerships with Australian media companies will not have to pay the fee.
In 2021, Australia passed the News Media Bargaining Code. This is an ultimatum for social media platforms and search engines to strike deals with Australian news companies. However, tech giants can avoid this obligation by removing links to Australian news content from their platforms.
And some big tech companies have already announced that they will not renew these contracts when they expire in 2024.
Under the government's initial rules, Meta signed deals with a number of Australian media companies, including News Corp Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Reportedly worth $70 million. But Meta announced in March that it would not renew those contracts after 2024, arguing that tech companies are not responsible for the problems plaguing the news industry.
“We agree with the government that the current law is flawed and remain concerned about requiring one industry to subsidize another,” a Mehta spokesperson told the Post. told.
“This proposal fails to account for the reality of how our platforms work. Specifically, most people don’t come to our platforms for news content; “News publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platform because they derive value from doing so,” the spokesperson added.
Daniel Coffey, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, countered that the evidence shows just the opposite. In other words, Meta enjoys “immense value” through news-based engagement on its platform.
“Under the law, we own the content, we create it, but it's the product of our labor, and it's being stolen,” Coffey said. Ta.
“Platforms should not decide whether to do so or not.” [and how much] They want to pay,” he added. Because in that case, they don't pay anything, she added.
Coffey said the scale of the charges in Australia and a measure similar to Canada's Online News Act, which can fine tech companies $10 million for each post that includes news from companies it doesn't indemnify. He said it would be interesting to see what impact it might have.
Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, said Australia is “compromised by companies like Meta, who profit from fact-based, fact-checked journalistic content, from paying “It should be praised for closing the loopholes that were exploited to avoid this,” he told the Post. statement.
He said Meta should follow Google's “more responsible” approach to new code.
“We commend the Australian government for taking steps to ensure that social media companies that derive value from high-quality news content compensate those who profit from them,” Coffey told the Post.
Mark Zuckerberg's company also claimed that Meta is already driving significant traffic and associated revenue to Australian media companies. In 2023, Facebook feeds will send more than 2.3 billion free clicks to Australian publishers, worth an estimated A$115 million, or $73 million, MetaAustralia writes. March blog post.
Google attacked Works with over 80 Australian news companies Since the 2021 Code was passed and previously promised to update these deals.
But the company said the deal was unclear after the new fees were announced on Thursday.
“The government's introduction of a targeted tax jeopardizes the viability of our continued commercial relationship with Australian news publishers,” Google said in a statement. “We are considering today's announcement and will make further comment after fully assessing the impact.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
