Australia unveils law forcing tech giants to pay for news

Paris, Feb 25 (AFP/APP): Australia passed a groundbreaking law on Thursday, forcing tech giants to pay for news shared on their networks.

After months of tense negotiation, the government agreed to water down elements of the new law in exchange for Facebook and Google agreeing to payment deals with struggling local media firms — seen as a potential model for companies around the world who have seen their advertising revenues decimated by the rise of internet platforms.

Here is where the situation stands in other countries: – Britain – The British government announced a new Digital Markets Unit in November to introduce and enforce “a new code to govern the behaviour of platforms that currently dominate the market, such as Google and Facebook.” The unit is set to begin work in April.

Though it will primarily look at tech firms’ use of data for advertising, it is also charged with finding ways to support news publishers, but it is not yet clear if this will involve direct fees to tech platforms, or how news publishers will be defined.