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Australian news law challenges big tech companies
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Australia’s parliament passed the final amendments to the News Media Bargaining Code on Feb. 25, which force Google and Facebook to pay for news, according to
The news code pushes the tech giants and news organizations to arrange payment deals between themselves. According to BBC, the code also requires Facebook and Google to invest millions of dollars in local digital content.
“The purpose of the code is to address the market power that clearly Google and Facebook have,” said Rod Sims, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commision chair that drafted the code. “Google and Facebook need media, but they don’t need any particular media company and that meant media companies couldn’t do commercial deals.”
Facebook ended a one-week blackout of Australian news on its popular social media site on Friday and announced preliminary commercial agreements with three small local publishers.
The moves reflected easing tensions between the US company and the Australian government, a day after the country s parliament passed a law forcing it and Google to pay local media companies for using content on their platforms.
The new law makes Australia the first nation where a government arbitrator can set the price Facebook and Google pay domestic media to show their content if private negotiations fail. Canada and other countries have shown interest in replicating Australia s reforms.