Australia to make Google and Facebook pay for news content
Global digital platforms Google and Facebook will be required to purchase news content in Australia, the federal government said on Monday as the coronavirus pandemic causes a collapse in advertising revenue.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would release in late July draft rules for the platforms to pay fair compensation for the journalistic content siphoned from press.
Frydenberg said he believed that Australia could succeed where other countries, including France and Spain, had failed to make Google and Facebook pay.
"We won't bow with their threats," Frydenberg told reporters. "We understand the challenge that we face. This is a huge mountain to climb. They are big companies that people are coping with, but addititionally there is so much on the line, so we're prepared because of this fight."
The ACCC had attemptedto negotiate a voluntary code where the global giants would agree to pay traditional media because of their content.
But the parties couldn't agree on "this key problem of payment for content," Frydenberg said.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Australia would have a different approach to Europe, counting on competition law instead of copyright law.
Google and Facebook said that they had been attempting to the ACCC November deadline to negotiate a voluntary code.
"We're disappointed by the government's announcement, especially as we've worked hard to meet their agreed deadline," Facebook Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand Will Easton said in a statement.
"COVID-19 has impacted every business and industry in the united states, including publishers, which is why we announced a fresh, global investment to aid news organisations at a time when advertising income is declining," he added, referring to a $100 million investment in the news industry announced in March.
Google said said it had engaged with an increase of than 25 Australian publishers to obtain input on a voluntary code.
"We've sought to work constructively with industry, the ACCC and government to develop a code of conduct, and we'll continue steadily to do so in the revised process lay out by the federal government today," a Google statement said.
ACCC Chairman Rod Sims played down the prospect of Google shutting down its Australian news platform rather than pay for content since it had done in Spain.
"Around 10% of serp's are media stories. This will seriously affect the usefulness, for example, of Google Search, therefore i think we must recognize that there's value both ways here and I believe it'll be hard for Google and Facebook just to say we won't have any connection with news media at all," Sims told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Michael Miller, Executive Chairman Australasia of News Corp. Australia, the country's greatest newspaper publisher, said: "We are searching for a fair payment and at the same time a considerable payment."
Frydenberg declined to estimate how much Google and Facebook would pay news media, other than to say this would amount to huge amount of money.
Google was netting 47% of internet marketing spending excluding classified ads in Australia, and Facebook was claiming 24%, he said.
Media companies have stopped printing a large number of newspaper mastheads across Australia as the pandemic shutdown has caused advertisers to avoid spending.
