Google and Facebook are “very close” to major Australian media transactions to pay for the news, a top government official said on Monday, while technology giants are struggling to avoid benchmarks, according to AFP.
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said talks with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai had made “great strides” in resolving a worldwide surveillance solution, the news agency reported. Australia is ready to pass legislation that would force digital companies to pay for news content, which would set a global precedent and, according to Facebook and Google, destroy the way the internet works.
The companies have partially threatened withdrawal of services out of the country if the rules become laws, triggering a war of words with Canberra government officials. But that disagreement seemed to calm down on Monday, Frydenberg told Australian public broadcaster ABC that talks with the companies “made great progress over the weekend”.
Seven West Media has become the largest Australian media company to enter into an agreement with Google to pay for journalism. Google and the publicly listed public television, print and online publishing company announced their partnership a day before Parliament plans bills to force the digital giant and Facebook to pay for news in Australia.
The announcement also follows weekend talks between Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.