Australia Passes New Law that Will Require Facebook and Google to Do This

Digital platforms such as Facebook and Google will have to get used to paying out money in order to publish some news onto their newsfeeds and search results.

Australia has passed a law that will require these digital platforms to pay local media outlets and publishers to link their content to their platforms.

The proposed bill, known officially as the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, was passed this month.

“The Code will ensure that news media businesses are fairly remunerated for the content they generate, helping to sustain public interest journalism in Australia,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said.

The two said that the government was “pleased to see progress by both Google and more recently Facebook in reaching commercial arrangements with Australian news media businesses.”

The law will be reviewed by the Treasury within one year of its commencement, the officials said.

Since last year both Google and Facebook have been fighting the new law.

It was on Monday that social media giant Facebook said that it would restore news pages in Australia, reversing an earlier decision to block access to news content on in Australia.

Facebook’s vice president for global news partnerships, Campbell Brown has said the Australian government clarified that the tech company will retain the ability to decide if news appears on its platform so that it won’t automatically be subject to a forced negotiation.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.