CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Facebook announced on Tuesday that it will lift the ban on Australians viewing and sharing news on its platform after reaching an agreement with the government on proposed legislation that will make digital giants pay for journalism.
The social media company sounded the alarm with its sudden decision last week to block news on its platform across Australia after the House of Representatives passed the bill. Initially, the outage also reduced access – at least temporarily – to the government pandemic, public health and emergency services, fueling outrage.
Facebook’s cooperation is a major victory in Australia’s efforts to make two major gateways to the internet, Google and Facebook, pay for the journalism they use – a confrontation that governments and technology companies around the world have been following closely. Google had also threatened to remove its search engine from Australia because of the proposed law, but that threat has disappeared.
“There is no doubt that Australia was a power struggle for the world,” said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
“Facebook and Google have made no secret of the fact that they know the eyes of the world are on Australia and have therefore sought to obtain a code that can be implemented here,” he added, referring to the bill, News Media Negotiation Code .
In fact, this week, Microsoft and four European publishing groups announced that they will work together to promote Australian-style rules for news payments on technology platforms.
The legislation was designed to reduce the oversized bargaining power of Facebook and Google in their negotiations with Australian news providers. Digital giants could not abuse their positions by making take-it-or-leave-it payment offers to journalism news companies. Instead, in the event of a defeat, an arbitration committee would make a binding decision on a winning bid.
Frydenberg and Facebook confirmed that the two sides agreed with the changes to the proposed legislation. The changes would give digital platforms a month’s notice before they are officially designated under the code. This would give those involved more time to conclude brokerage agreements before they are forced to enter into binding arbitration agreements.
A statement made Tuesday by Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice president for news partnerships, added that the agreement allows the company to choose the publishers it will support, including small and local ones.
“We are re-establishing news on Facebook in Australia in the coming days. In the future, the government has clarified that we will retain the ability to decide whether news will appear on Facebook, so that we are not automatically subjected to forced negotiation, “said Brown.
Frydenberg described the agreed amendments as “clarifications” of the government’s intention. He said his negotiations with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg were “difficult”.
A lobby group of European publishers, among those who are part of Microsoft, said the agreement shows that such legislation is possible – and not just in Australia.
“The latest twist shows that regulation works,” said Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council. “Regulators around the world will be reassured that they can continue to draw inspiration from the Australian government’s determination to withstand the unacceptable threats of powerful commercial porters.”
Facebook has said it will now negotiate agreements with Australian publishers.
“We are pleased that the Australian Government has agreed to a number of changes and safeguards that address our key concerns about business permissions that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers in relation to the value we receive from them,” he said. Facebook regional director William Spuse Easton.
“As a result of these changes, we can now work to continue our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days,” Easton added.
Meanwhile, Google has signed Australia’s largest media companies into content licensing agreements through the News Showcase. The platform says it has deals with more than 50 Australian titles and more than 500 global publishers using the model, which was launched in October.
Peter Lewis, director of the Center for Responsible Technology at the Australia Institute, a think tank, said in a statement that “the changes keep the integrity of the media code intact.”
However, others took a more skeptical stance. Jeff Jarvis, a journalism expert at City University of New York, said media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns most of Australia’s major newspapers through News Corp. in the US, it is the biggest winner, while smaller headlines and new media companies would suffer the most. .
Jarvis said Murdoch’s media empire was the driving force behind Australian law, which he said included a requirement for media companies to earn at least A $ 150,000 ($ 119,000) to be eligible.
“So a low-income business has no real recourse,” Jarvis said, adding that even though Facebook and Google open payment talks with smaller companies, “clearly a smaller player has less influence than a player bigger than a News Corp. ”
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Associated Press writer Kelvin Chan contributed to the London report.