Australia is making the lives of many tech giants more difficult as the current government is planning a new scheme to protect local news publishers. This includes making companies pay local news publishers if and when their content is used.
We’ve already seen Meta opt out of the law that imposes the dues on apps like Facebook and Instagram when they use local news. Now, it wants to make sure local media publishers get paid for utilizing content. As per the government, the new scheme will come into play by this week. In terms of the goal, well, it’s to offer protection to the nation’s news industry.
The Communications Minister for Australia also shared how tech giants Meta and Google would be penalized with huge sums in case they refused to negotiate any kind of deal on this front. The decision is based on a law introduced in 2021. This is where Australia became highlighted as the first nation to force digital apps to make deals with local publishers when using their material.
Dubbed ‘News Bargaining Initiative’, it’s designed to balance power amongst big tech names and local media outlets. These have argued how tech apps profited from their material but failed to compensate them. Hence, through the new deal, both parties can collaborate and ensure fair trading of material takes place.
The latest law from 2021 spoke about tech apps and publishers reaching deals that came at a price tag of hundreds of millions. Then we had Google voluntarily renew the deal but Meta failed to cooperate and thought it was better off without it. Hence, it denied renewing any such agreements above 2024.
For now, the country’s joint selection committee of the parliament focused more on tech giant Meta and called the company out for not cooperating and refusing deal renewals. Meanwhile, Meta’s spokesperson also shared how such reports ignore realities related to how apps work and the preferences of those using them.
The new laws ensure local media outlets get the credit they deserve and that’s why Australia plans to introduce this soon. It added how the goal was also to safeguard the country’s media landscape.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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We’ve already seen Meta opt out of the law that imposes the dues on apps like Facebook and Instagram when they use local news. Now, it wants to make sure local media publishers get paid for utilizing content. As per the government, the new scheme will come into play by this week. In terms of the goal, well, it’s to offer protection to the nation’s news industry.
The Communications Minister for Australia also shared how tech giants Meta and Google would be penalized with huge sums in case they refused to negotiate any kind of deal on this front. The decision is based on a law introduced in 2021. This is where Australia became highlighted as the first nation to force digital apps to make deals with local publishers when using their material.
Dubbed ‘News Bargaining Initiative’, it’s designed to balance power amongst big tech names and local media outlets. These have argued how tech apps profited from their material but failed to compensate them. Hence, through the new deal, both parties can collaborate and ensure fair trading of material takes place.
The latest law from 2021 spoke about tech apps and publishers reaching deals that came at a price tag of hundreds of millions. Then we had Google voluntarily renew the deal but Meta failed to cooperate and thought it was better off without it. Hence, it denied renewing any such agreements above 2024.
For now, the country’s joint selection committee of the parliament focused more on tech giant Meta and called the company out for not cooperating and refusing deal renewals. Meanwhile, Meta’s spokesperson also shared how such reports ignore realities related to how apps work and the preferences of those using them.
The new laws ensure local media outlets get the credit they deserve and that’s why Australia plans to introduce this soon. It added how the goal was also to safeguard the country’s media landscape.
Read next: OpenAI Finally Releases Real-Time Video Capabilities for ChatGPT
