First modification:
Australia passed the first law in the world that obliges tech giants to pay news companies for the content they generate. The legislation began to be built after the country’s authorities found an imbalance in advertising revenues between the media and Internet companies. This regulation is aimed to be replicated in other countries of the world.
The first in the world. The Australian Parliament finally passed the controversial law that obliges big tech companies like Facebook and Google to pay media companies for the content they generate and move on their platforms.
In this way, both parties will have to negotiate the rates, and in the event that the talks fail, there will be a government arbitrator who will determine the prices that the technology companies will have to pay to the national media. The measure will be reviewed a year after it takes effect, but there is still no clarity on when it will be.
The law was approved after a series of amendments that emerged after the dialogue between the government and Facebook. As a protest against the legislation, Facebook had blocked news within Australia, and had also prevented users from sharing news from Australian media outside the country. Google, for its part, had threatened to block its search engine in the oceanic country.
The main objective of the law is to protect journalism
The project began as a result of a 2018 investigation by the Australian Competition Commission (ACCC), which revealed an imbalance in advertising revenue between the media, mainly print, and technology. In other words, companies like Facebook were taking most of the publicity.
The ACCC found that, in 2018, of every AU $ 100 spent by advertisers, 49 went to Google and 24 to Facebook. The agency believes this threatens the viability of media business models and their ability to monetize journalism. And that one consequence of this has been the cutting of large numbers of journalists from newsrooms over the last decade.
Despite the figures, the technology companies defend themselves and claim that it is the media that benefit from their platforms, since thanks to them they bring the news to a wider audience, generating millions of views.
According to a statement issued by Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, “it is the publishers themselves who choose to share their news on social networks or make it available for others to share, because they have value in doing so.”
That’s why they have buttons on their sites that encourage readers to share them. And if they click on a link that is shared on Facebook, they will be directed off the platform to the publisher’s website “, he added, mentioning that, in this way, last year the company generated” approximately 5,100 million free referrals to Australian publishers for an estimated value of A $ 407 million for the news industry ”.
The reason why the law only mentions Google and Facebook is because, according to the ACCC, it is these companies that have power in the advertising market, and in the search and reference of news. Both companies have already announced multi-million dollar deals to back the news industry, but there are concerns that small media will be excluded.
From Australia to the rest of the world
The world closely followed the process of legislation, which could be replicated globally. In fact, several countries are already heading towards it. The government in Canada is expected to draft legislation similar to that of Australia in the coming months.
Although another option is to follow the example of France, where a regulation requires Google to negotiate with news publishers and pay them for the reproduction of their content. For example, the news snippets that appear when we perform a search.
This is a copyright law of the European Union, but so far it has only been applied in the Gallic country. By June, all the countries of the bloc will have to adopt national versions of this directive. Some MEPs consider that this measure is not enough and propose to copy Australian law.
With Reuters, EFE, AFP and AP
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source https://pledgetimes.com/digital-magazine-why-is-the-australian-media-asking-for-remuneration-for-the-news-that-moves-on-facebook/
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