Australia Passed New Law That Requires Facebook And Google To Pay For News Content

On Wednesday, Australia passed a new law that will push back on internet giants’ businesses like Facebook and Google, which did not want to pay publishers for news content.

On Tuesday, a last-minute round of senate added amendments to the bill, which was sent back and passed to the lower house. Dubbed the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, the new law requires Facebook and Google to negotiate licensing agreements with publishers for the news content appearing on Facebook News Feed and Google search results.

The vote on the Code belies months of conflict between the internet giants and Australia. Recently, Google even threatened to pull its search engine from the country to quietly cut deals with major publishers in the country for about $47 million. Meanwhile, Facebook stop showing news on its feeds in Australia for 5 days then restored it after the government’s offer of concession to the code. The social giant said it will restore news content in Australia by the weekend. Josh Frydenberg, the Treasurer of Australia and a key figure in negotiating with Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg.

“This legislation will help level the playing field and see Australian news media businesses paid for generating original content.”

The new law in Australia will certainly inspire similar legislation across the world as governments are dealing with the quickly changing media environment. Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, said that he intends to “ensure the revenues of web giants are shared more fairly with creators and media.” Ministers in the EU and UK also referred to Australia’s move as inspiration for potential legislation in the future.

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