The proposal would allow certain media outlets to transact with Facebook and Google individually or collectively – and the rules would allow the parties to enter arbitration if they could not reach an agreement within three months. That process involves an independent arbitrator seeing both parties’ offers and settling the matter within 45 business days.
Both tech companies argue that the law is illegally drawn to publishers, and they force them to pay news companies while tech companies argue that they already have plenty to support them.
Easton, for example, said Facebook’s decision this week has since been an attempt to work with regulators on ways to work more closely with media outlets.
“We have already invested millions of dollars in Australian Australian news businesses and we have offered to invest millions more during discussions on this legislation,” he wrote. “We also hoped to bring Facebook News to Australia, a feature exclusively for news on our platform, where we pay publishers for their content.”
He said those proposals were “ignored.”
Reacting to Facebook’s announcement on Tuesday, Australian Treasurer Josh Friedenberg said the reforms would “help create a more sustainable media landscape.”
“A statement Australia makes laws that advance our national interest. We do not respond to threats or coercive threats from wherever they come from.”
For now, Google and Facebook are the only tech companies that will be subject to the new regulation. But other platforms could be added in the future, according to regulators.
“The proposed law is unprecedented in its reach and seeks to regulate every aspect of how tech companies do business with news publishers,” Easton said Monday.
“We have a choice to either remove the news altogether or to adopt a system that allows publishers to charge us for as much content as we want at no cost,” Easton said. “Unfortunately, no business can run that way.”
If Facebook goes ahead with its decision to ban news on its platform, it will not affect the company’s other inings furings for users in Australia, he added.
The law went through a phase of public consultation last month. It will now have to be finalized and presented to Parliament, where legislators will vote on whether to pass it.
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