SYDNEY : Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Australian lawmakers last week to discuss rules that would make internet giants pay news outlets for content but failed to persuade them to change policy, the country's Treasurer said on Sunday.Zuckerberg "reached out to talk about the code and the impact on Facebook" and a constructive discussion followed last week between the social media billionaire, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and communications minister Paul Fletcher. "No, Mark Zuckerberg didn't convince me to back down if that's what you're asking," Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp, without giving further details of the meeting.A Facebook spokeswoman in Australia said the company's executives regularly meet with government stakeholders on a range of topics. If the parties cannot agree on payments, a government-appointed arbitrator will set the fees for them.Facebook and Google oppose the "News Media Bargaining Code" and have mounted public campaigns against it. "We're told that if we go ahead with this, we're going to break the internet," Frydenberg said on the ABC. "What I do know is that media businesses should be paid for content."

Source: Economic Times January 31, 2021 05:00 UTC