The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is pressuring Google and Facebook to support locally produced news by agreeing to pay for material that appears on their platforms. The regulator believes there is a significant power imbalance between the American tech giants and news originators. But Google and Facebook disagree. Google is warning users its popular services will be diminished, while Facebook says it will remove all news from its Australian platform.
Piers and John discuss the changed media landscape of the digital age and what’s at stake.
Further Reading
Draft news media bargaining code
Open letter to Australians
An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia
ACCC Statement on Facebook
Google writes open letter to Australians, opposing government plans to make it pay for news
If Facebook really pulls news from its Australian sites, we’ll have a much less compelling product