Big Tech Responds to Australian Proposed Regulatory News Deal

Australia has proposed new bargaining code that would make big tech platforms pay news publishers for their content, or else be subject to large fines. The proposed legislation, called "News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code," aims to ensure Australian news companies "are fairly remunerated for the content they generate", and was brought to Parliament for consideration this week. News Corp, the largest owner of newspapers in Australia, signed a three-year partnership with Google Wednesday to sell news products for Google's curated news platform. News Corp's publications include The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch and the New York Post; it will provide curated news from these sites “in return for significant payments by Google.” The deal is one of many reached between Google and Australian news publishers in response to the proposal. Rather than negotiate with news publishers, Facebook said on Wednesday it will prevent people inside Australia from accessing news stories, and Facebook users elsewhere will not be able to view or share news stories from Australian outlets. Separately, Microsoft encouraged the U.S. to replicate the proposed legislation, saying that tech companies should be obligated to support a free press. Outlets across the political spectrum analyzed the proposal and what it could mean for the U.S. Coverage on all sides noted that Australia's legislation would serve as a test for other countries looking to regulate the power of big tech companies and to provide a boost for news companies that have lost significant amounts of advertising to Facebook and Google.