Australia on Friday took a step closer to introduce pioneering legislation that would force companies to pay for news content being shared. This could change the way people all around the world experience internet.
The tech giants such as Google and Facebook have expressed their grievance towards the proposed laws. Google and Facebook for nearly 2 decades have been functioning with minimum regulations, these companies will be under strict government scrutiny for the first time.
Regulators in Australia have already identified the company’s dominance in online advertising and its impact on news media. While observing the competition in Australia we can identify that for every $100 spent on online advertisements Google gets $53 and Facebook gets $28 and the remaining among others. Australia to level this disparity wants Google and Facebook to pay for the expensive-to-produce content. According to a report of the draft legislation issued on Friday, the measures are set to become laws with minimal adjustments.
Regulators all over the globe are keeping a close eye on the developments in Australia and trying to figure out if these laws can be applied in their respective countries also.
Several competitors such as Microsoft are expecting their search engine Bing to gain market share and have openly expressed that other countries should also follow Australia’s lead, stating that the tech sector needs to step up and breathe life into independent journalism.
US government issued a statement that opposed this law stating that there will long term negative consequences for US firms, this statement was issued days before president Joe Biden came into power. European legislators are viewing this proposal favorably as they are drafting their digital market legislation which applies to the EU.
Facebook and Google on the other side are coming with their list of regulations that will harm companies having business models that allowed them to become some of the most profitable companies. Mel Silva Google Australia’s managing director presented before the parliamentary inquiry that f the laws are passed there will be no other choice but to stop Google search services in Australia. Facebook stated that it will prevent users from Australia from sharing news on this platform.
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