Australia to Force Google and Facebook to Pay for News Content

Australia to Force Google and Facebook to Pay News Outlets for the Content they produce. Facebook and Google digital platforms are making huge amounts of money through news advertisings, and the Australian government feels this money should be shared with the smaller members the companies benefit from.

Australia to Force Google and Facebook to Pay for News Content they produce.

As reported by the Abc News (AU), Australia to force tech giant platforms Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for the content they produce.
Especially, Both Facebook and Google digital platforms are making huge amounts of money through news advertisings, and the Australian government feels this money should be shared with the smaller members the companies benefit from.

Code of Conduct

The federal government in December told the digital giants to negotiate with publishers on the use of their content or face further regulation. But with negotiations between parties progressing slowly and with little agreement having been reached, it was decided that a mandatory code was required.
Treasurer of Australia, Josh Frydenberg said in a statement:

"It's only fair that those that generate content get paid for it".

As the Guardian reports, the mandatory code is the same as the voluntary one that had been proposed but includes added penalties for non-compliance.
According to, Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, doesn't believe tech giants will co-operate in good faith to come to terms with a voluntary model that would see media companies paid for original content.
He says;

“For two decades, Google and Facebook have built trillion-dollar businesses by using other people’s content and refusing to pay for it,"

Further, The Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, said in a statement:

"Australia needs a strong and sustainable news media ecosystem and the Government recognizes the importance of public interest journalism," "Media companies are facing significant financial pressure and COVID-19 has led to a sharp downturn in advertising revenue across the whole sector. "Digital platforms need to do more to improve the transparency of their operations for news media providers as they have a significant impact on the capacity of news media organizations to build and maintain an audience and derive resources from the media content they produce."

However, Australia will not be the first country that seeks to hold the digital giants to account and regulate payment for content," says Frydenberg, France last year implemented a European Council Directive to protect the copyright of content when reproduced online.