Despite last week's feud between Facebook and the Australian government, the House of Representatives has passed the law. The law states that some commissions should be paid to indigenous news publishers.
Australia's House of Representatives passed a media law
The Australian government has passed an expected law that will make Facebook and Google Pay certain money for news about content on their platform. This policy has frowned upon both tech giants with Facebook blocking all news content to Australians.
However, the firm had agreed to change the decision after viable negotiations with the Australian government. The government has made some concessions to accommodate some Facebook concerns. The law is a test run as many countries are viewing from afar to see the impact.
This legislation called News Media Bargaining Code passed the House of Representatives on Thursday after passing through the Senate earlier in the day. Tech giants had said that the law was very unfair and didn't consider how the internet works. The new law encourages tech giants to negotiate a financial deal with other local agencies. In recent years both social network firms had invested billions of dollars in the digital sector.
Independent arbitration would overlook any dispute between tech firms and publishers
If the negotiations between them fail, there is an independent arbitration panel that will set an unbiased price that all parties should agree to. The Australian government has said that this law will give other news firms a fairer chance to make a profit. According to the Australian consumer commission, it says other news agencies and producers have very little negotiating power and rely mostly on duopolies from Google and Facebook.
The social media firms said it already pays these publishers a fair share, and they feel it isn't enough they should come out with better alternatives. It says the new law will harm media business in Australia, as they might be forced not to invest again.
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