Australia passes a new law requiring Facebook and Google to pay for news

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The new code, approved by the Australian Parliament on Thursday, “will ensure that news media companies receive fair compensation for the content they generate,” Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.

Facebook will restore news in Australia after talks with the government
The country’s unprecedented new law had been hotly debated in recent months. Facebook FB and Google GOOGL had opposed the original version of the legislation, which would have allowed the media to negotiate with them individually or collectively – and to engage in binding arbitration if the parties could not reach an agreement.

Facebook even shut down news pages in Australia last week contrary to the legislation. But it recovered them earlier this week after the country made some changes to the code, including a provision that “ should take into account whether a digital platform has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry through commercial agreements. to connect with news media. companies. “

Arbitration will now only be used as a “last resort” after a period of “good faith” mediation.

Facebook said after those revisions were made, the new agreement would make it possible to “support the publishers we want.” It later revealed a deal with major Australian news company Seven West Media.

Google, meanwhile, had already tried to get ahead of the new legislation by announcing partnerships with media organizations in Australia, including Seven and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp NWS

The Australian government said the code will be revised by the Treasury Department after a year to “ensure that it produces results consistent with the government’s policy intent.”

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