Last week. Meta announced that it will not do further deals with Australian media businesses. Meta is in effect saying: We want to do business in Australia but we do not want to comply with the law of Australia.

That law, of course, is the News Media Bargaining Code – a detailed series of provisions added to the Competition and Consumer Act by the Morrison government in 2021. We took this action to deal with the problem of digital platforms such as Facebook (owned by Meta) and Google (owned by Alphabet) using content generated and paid for by Australian news media businesses, without paying for that content.

All the news that’s fit for Facebook: Meta is opting out of doing deals with Australian news media businesses. Credit: .

Our action produced the desired result. Both companies entered into commercial deals with Australian news media businesses; by October 2022, Meta had done 13 and Alphabet 23. Under these deals, an estimated $200 million will be paid to Australian news media businesses; many have employed additional journalists as a result.

But despite the success we had, it is not at all surprising that Meta is once again seeking to throw its weight around. There has been a consistent pattern of such behaviour from these global digital platforms.

Spain, for example, passed a law in 2014 compelling Google to pay local publishers for content. Google responded by shutting down Google News in Spain.

So when the Morrison government announced, in April 2020, that we intended to legislate a mandatory code to deal with these issues, we knew there was a rocky road ahead.

And so it proved to be. Google threatened to withdraw its search service from Australia. And Facebook, notoriously, shut down the Facebook pages of many Australian news media businesses on February 18, 2021.

But through all of this the Morrison government stood firm – and we carefully designed and legislated a code which has real teeth.

QOSHE - Here’s some news, Meta – you’re defying Australian law - Paul Fletcher
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Here’s some news, Meta – you’re defying Australian law

15 16
06.03.2024

Last week. Meta announced that it will not do further deals with Australian media businesses. Meta is in effect saying: We want to do business in Australia but we do not want to comply with the law of Australia.

That law, of course, is the News Media Bargaining Code – a detailed series of provisions added to the Competition and Consumer Act by the Morrison government in 2021. We took this action to deal with the problem of digital platforms such as Facebook (owned by Meta) and........

© The Sydney Morning Herald


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