Written by Byron Kaye and Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Meta Platforms says it will stop paying Australian news publishers for content published on Facebook, leading the world in legislation forcing internet giants to enter into licensing deals. It was decided that they would take on a new battle against Canberra, who had been in the league for a long time.
News publishers and governments such as Australia have argued that Facebook and Google unfairly benefit from advertising revenue when links to news articles appear on their platforms. Meta says it is scaling back on promoting news and political content to increase traffic, and that news links are now part of users’ feeds.
Meta said in a statement that it was discontinuing Facebook tabs promoting news in Australia and the US, adding that it discontinued News tabs in the UK, France and Germany last year.
As a result, “we will not enter into new commercial agreements for traditional news content in these countries, nor will we offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers,” the statement added.
This decision puts Meta against the Australian government and its 2021 Act.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters: “The idea that one company can benefit from the investments of others is unfair, not just investments in capital, but investments in people, investments in journalism.” Ta.
“That’s not the Australian way,” he added.
The government is seeking advice from Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on next steps.
Under the 2021 law, the country’s government will have to decide whether to appoint an arbitrator to set Mehta’s fees, and could potentially impose fines on Mehta if it doesn’t cooperate. Most of Meta’s contracts with Australian media are for three years and are set to expire in 2024.
But Meta is not obligated to pay news publishers if it blocks users from reposting news articles, as it briefly did in 2021. Similar measures have been in place in Canada since 2023, when similar legislation was passed. Mehta said Friday that publishers can continue to post news content on Facebook.
Curtin University internet studies professor Tama Lieber said Meta was reluctant to escalate the dispute by stopping users from posting news links in Australia and would challenge it in court if the government intervened. He said he was likely to file a complaint.
“Meta is saying, ‘What are you going to do?’ And the Australian government has a real decision to make,” he said.
Australia’s biggest media outlets condemned the decision as an attack on the industry.
“Meta is using its vast market power to refuse to negotiate, and it is right for the government to consider all options on how it can leverage its powers under the Media Bargaining Code,” News Corp. said Australasia Executive Chairman Michael Miller.
Nine Entertainment CEO Mike Sneesby said the decision meant the media company, which owns the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review mastheads and free-to-air television channels, He said he didn’t recognize the value he created for the meta.
The value of the deal was not disclosed, but Australian media reported that Facebook’s deal was worth 70 million Australian dollars (about $45 million) a year to the industry.
Google’s media license agreement in Australia is primarily for five years and expires in 2026. A spokesperson said the company has already begun negotiations to renew the contract.
Many governments around the world remain keen to prevent local news industries from being squeezed out of the online advertising market. Last month, Indonesia also unveiled plans to make big tech companies pay for news content.
(1 dollar = 1.5370 Australian dollar)
(Reporting by Byron Kaye, Lewis Jackson and Alasdair Pal; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
1 Comment
Thank you for the auspicious writeup It in fact was a amusement account it Look advanced to far added agreeable from you However how can we communicate