n Thursday, Australia’s center-left is about to reveal its new rules when it comes to handling Big Tech companies. Those measures are applied in the case
where Big Tech companies refuse to keep paying Australian Media firms for news content that is hosted on their platforms, reported Reuters.
With the new laws proposed by the Australian government, every internet company that does not comply with the rules and refuses to negotiate with publishers or even does not want to remove certain news from their platforms, as Meta did in Canada, would need to pay regardless.
Even more so, Australian Communication Minister Michelle Rowland’s office, Meta and Google, did not respond to Reuters’s request to comment. In 2021 Australia moved forward with a law that made US tech giants such as Alphabet and Meta compensate media companies for links that draw readers and attract advertising revenue.
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It is also worth mentioning that Meta struck several deals with different Australian media firms among which was News Corp and the Australian Broadcasting Corp, the national broadcasting company. Yet, it was mentioned that Meta will no longer renew those deals beyond 2024.
Meta has also been scaling back their promotion of news and content that has political roots in order to draw more traffic. As of now, news links are a fraction of the user’s feeds, being said that they would discontinue a tab on Facebook that promotes news in Australia.
By
Alice Brasoveanu
•
December 12, 2024 9:00 AM
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