Should tech giants like Facebook and Google have to share ad profits with the news organizations when linked news content contributes to those ad profits?
And perhaps more importantly, will governments hoping to regulate the power of these companies be able to?
These are the questions that have come to the forefront of peoples’ minds in the past week as a stand-off between Facebook and the Australian government resulted in a ban on Australian news content on Facebook.
Last Thursday, Feb. 18, Australia introduced new legislation that would require Facebook and Google to share advertising revenue with news companies, which prompted Facebook to ban all Australian news content from its site.
The proposed legislation, called the “News Media Bargaining Code,” aims to protect and sustain media businesses by preventing Facebook and Google from abusing their power by offering “take-it-or-leave-it payment offers to news businesses for their journalism,” according to the Associated Press (AP). A binding decision would be made by a panel in the event that the tech giants and news organizations could not agree on a fair payment for the journalism linked online.
Around the world, news publishers receive less and less revenue, and in many cases, news businesses have had to decrease coverage or shut down entirely. According to AP, measures like the News Media Bargaining Code could help revive and support the news industry.
According to AP, Australian people could not post links to news stories on Facebook, and people outside of Australia could not post links to Australian news sources on the platform. In addition, the ban also blocked important messages from the Australian government concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, the fire season and health and emergency services.
Google had said it would remove its search functions for Australians, but ultimately did not act on that threat and instead made a deal with Australia’s largest news organizations.
Facebook’s retaliation was broadly criticized by both the Australian government and by other critics around the world, according to NPR. In an era where fake news spreads quickly and easily through social media platforms, blocking legitimate news sources from those platforms as Facebook did poses a real danger.
Negotiations between the Australian government and Facebook lasted through the weekend, and a deal was made. The media code was amended to allow more time for negotiations between the platforms and the publishers, according to NPR. A forced arbitration like what was in the original legislation would instead only be used as a last resort, according to The Washington Post.
Many people have expressed concerns about Facebook and other tech giants becoming monopolies that wield too much power, and these events have prompted other nations to take a closer look at antitrust laws and measures to regulate multinational corporations wielding considerable power. According to AP, a European Union copyright directive requires agreements similar to those being established in Australia to be made, and France became the first government in the European Union to enforce those laws in 2020. AP reported that Microsoft and E.U. publishers are now looking at the possibility of creating a news payment system similar to the Australian one.
Although this is considered a win for news publishers and it could become a model other states will use when regulating tech giants, the fact that Facebook was able to take such extreme action in the first place is a stark reminder of how much gatekeeping power these companies have.
