The company said in a blog post on Monday that Facebook plans to block the distribution of local and international news on its platform, if the tech platform is required by law to pay the publisher for the content platform.
Will Australia, managing director of Facebook Australia Australia and New Zealand, wrote in a blog post that “Australia Australia is enacting a new regulation that misunderstands the dynamics of the Internet and harms the same news organizations that the government is trying to protect.” The commission overseeing the process, including the relationship between social media and news media, “ignored important facts”.
“Assuming this draft code becomes law, we will reluctantly stop publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram.” Easton continued. “It’s not our first choice – it’s our last. But the long-term vibrancy of the Australian news and media sector is the only way to protect against the consequences of rejecting logic. ”
The country’s proposed News Media Bargaining Code legislation, currently in draft form, stemmed from a 2019 inquiry that found that tech giants such as Facebook and Google account for a large share of Australia’s media organizations ’advertising online advertising revenue. Australia The Australian Treasurer has ordered the Australian Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to develop a voluntary code of conduct that would force the platform to pay media companies. The ACCC, however, told the government that it felt “impossible” to have a voluntary agreement.
Under the proposed law, Google and Facebook will provide publishers with advance notice of changes to their algorithms, including penalties for failing to comply. Both companies have vehemently backed out of the provision. Facebook says it will give unfair competition to news organizations in Australia.
Easton wrote in his post that Facebook users present a portion of what they see in their news feeds, and that it is “not an important source of revenue” for the company. In addition to investing “millions of dollars” in the Australian Australian news industry, he added: “In the first five months of 2020, we returned billion 2.9 billion clicks from Facebook’s news feed back to Australian Australian news websites at no charge – an additional 200 million additional traffic. AUD to publishers. ”
Earlier this month, Google released an open letter about the proposed legislation, adding a pop-up to its homepage in Australia, “The way Google uses A’s is risky” and that the regulation could hurt their search experience. Google argued that the law was enacted to encourage large media companies to offer special treatment and to make “huge and unreasonable demands that put their free services at risk.”
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The ACCC pushed back, saying Google’s letter contained “misinformation” and added that “a healthy news media sector is essential for a well-functioning democracy.”
Australia Australian media companies have largely endorsed the proposed changes. Australia Australian newspapers and media outlets, such as their counterparts in other countries, have been hit hard by the economic downturn due to the coronavirus epidemic. The Guardian Reported. Large Australian media companies have asked staff to cut salaries in recent months, and a sharp drop in advertising revenue has forced some newspapers to suspend production.
