Australia’s testing of Big Tech’s willingness to pay for news it uses has produced a split decision.
Its proposed law being debated this week to establish licensing arrangements has led to Google agreeing a spate of licensing deals with Australian media companies including Nine, one of the country’s largest such groups and publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald. More significantly, a global agreement has been reached with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Google caved after earlier threatening to quit the country and cede search to rivals such as Bing.
In contrast, Facebook has banned the sharing of content on its platform in Australia, the most far-reaching restrictions it has ever placed on publishers in any part of the world. William Easton, Facebook’s managing director in Australia, said the company would restrict news “with a heavy heart” because the law “fundamentally misunderstands” its relationship with publishers. “It seeks to penalise Facebook for content it didn’t take or ask for,” he said.