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Australia: agreement reached, Facebook to restore news content

2021-02-23T11:52:45.429Z


A deal has been reached between Facebook, Google and the Australian government, as parliament examines the bill to contra


Facebook announced on Tuesday the lifting of the blockade in Australia of news content after a last-minute agreement with the government on the law to force digital giants to pay media for their content.

Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg announced a compromise that will save face for each side.

Found as parliament examines the bill, this compromise means that Facebook and Google - particularly targeted by the bill - will not be penalized if they make certain deals with local media to pay for information.

They were given two months to negotiate these arrangements and avoid binding arbitration.

Thus, the Australian media will collect millions of dollars from Google and Facebook.

For their part, the digital giants will not have to pay sums a priori higher than those granted and this will avoid an international precedent.

“With these changes, we can now work to continue our investment in public service journalism and restore Facebook news to Australians in the coming days,” said Facebook Australia Managing Director Will Easton.

A first project with the Seven West group

Hours after the compromise was announced, Facebook revealed a first draft deal with powerful Australian media group Seven West.

"We have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the news groups we choose, including small and local," said Campbell Brown, Facebook vice president in charge of global news partnerships.

Last week, Facebook outraged Australia and many countries by blocking the publication of news links from local or international media in response to the bill.

Several official emergency services Facebook pages were unintentionally affected.

Google, which for a time threatened to suspend its search engine in Australia, agreed last week to pay "significant sums" in return for content from Australian press groups including News Corp.

by Rupert Murdoch and Nine Entertainment, the two main ones.

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The compromise announced was described as "reasonable" by commentators.

“Anyone can walk away and say, we got what we wanted,” said Rob Nicholls, professor of management at the University of New South Wales.

A law stored "in a drawer"

From the outset, the tech giants opposed this law intended to regulate relations between traditional media in great financial difficulty and the behemoths that dominate the Internet and capture a significant portion of advertising revenue.

They feared in particular a precedent which would threaten their economic model.

They were also against making these negotiations with the media mandatory and failing to reach an agreement an independent Australian arbitrator would rule.

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Under the compromise, these measures will not come into effect if the digital giants are seen to have made a “significant contribution” to Australian media through unspecified “trade deals”.

"We are now faced with the strange possibility that the code of conduct can be adopted by Parliament and that it does not apply specifically to anyone," said Marcus Strom, union leader of the Alliance for Media, Entertainment and Arts.

“It will remain in the finance minister's drawer as a threat to misbehaving digital businesses.

"

Critics of the bill believe that it sanctions successful businesses and amounts to transferring money to traditional media in financial difficulty but politically influential.

The media sector has cut thousands of jobs in Australia over the past decade as advertising revenues flow to the big tech firms.

Of the $ 100 on advertising spent by Australian businesses, 49 go to Google and 24 to Facebook, according to the Australian competition authority.

While Google and Facebook seem to have found a solution in Australia, that doesn't mean the end of their problems.

The European Union, Canada and other countries also intend to regulate the sector.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2021-02-23

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