Under Australia's closely watched internet reforms, the country will become the first to require Facebook along with Alphabet Inc's Google to pay for news sourced from media companies under a royalty-style system. Facebook Australia Managing Director Will Easton said the proposed legislation misunderstands the dynamic of the internet and will damage news organisations. "The proposed law is unprecedented in its reach and seeks to regulate every aspect of how tech companies do business with news publishers." If Facebook enacted its changes, media companies and social media users in Australia would not be able to distribute any news articles on Facebook or photo and video-sharing site Instagram. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said there was a power imbalance between the big social media and search platforms and smaller Australian publishers.

Source: Otago Daily Times September 01, 2020 02:26 UTC