The Australia government has ordered its Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to create a mandatory code of conduct that would require tech giants such as Google and Facebook to pay local news outlets when they use their content.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced that a draft version of the code will be ready by the end of July. It will cover issues including data sharing, news ranking, and revenue sharing.
The new code will also include penalties and sanctions for non-compliance, as well as a binding dispute resolution process. It’s not certain when this mandatory code of conduct will come into effect, though.
“It’s only fair that those that generate content get paid for it,” said Frydenberg.
“Australia needs a strong and sustainable news media ecosystem and the Government recognizes the importance of public interest journalism,” Fletcher added.
The ACCC was initially working on to create a voluntary code by November this year. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit ad revenue significantly and the country has shifted the focus to a mandatory code while bringing forward the November deadline to July.
The Australian competition watchdog also says that tech companies are unlikely to voluntarily agree to pay for news content. So a mandatory code seems to be the need of the hour.
Australia forces Google and Facebook to pay for news content
Australia is not the first country seeking to hold the tech giants to account and regulate payment for the content. Back in 2014, Spain had asked Google to pay news outlets for the article snippets it showed on search results. In response, the search giant shut down the Google News service in the country. Google News has not reopened in Spain since.
Last year, the French government also passed legislation requiring internet firms to pay for showing news article snippets. Google, however, said it would not show article snippets at all, rather than pay to show them. The country is further investigating the matter.
Clearly, Google is not willing to pay for showing news article snippets. Australia is now seeking to become the first country to make the internet giant do so. The company is certainly not happy about it, though.
“We’re disappointed by the Government’s announcement, especially as we’ve worked hard to meet their agreed deadline. COVID-19 has impacted every business and industry across the country, including publishers, which is why we announced a new, global investment to support news organizations at a time when advertising revenue is declining,” Google said in a statement to Engadget.
“We hope the code will protect the interests of millions of Australians and small businesses that use our services every day”. Whether ACCC’s new mandatory code of conduct delivers desired results remains to be seen.