Australia to amend law making Facebook, Google pay for news

author of proposed Australian laws to make Facebook and Google pay for journalism said Thursday his draft legislation will be altered to allay some of digital giants’ concerns, but remain fundamentally unchanged.

Australia’s fair trade regulator Rod Sims, chair of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said he would give his final draft of laws to make Facebook and Google pay Australian media companies for news content y use by early October.

Facebook has warned it might block Australian news content rar than pay for it.

Google has said proposed laws would result in “dramatically worse Google Search and YouTube,” put free services at risk and could lead to users’ data “being handed over to big news businesses.”

Sims said he is discussing draft of his bill with U.S. social media platforms. It could be introduced into Parliament in late October.

“Google has got concerns about it, some of it is that y just don’t like it, ors are things that we’re happily going to eng with m on,” Sims told a webinar hosted by Australia Institute, an independent think-tank.

“We’ll make changes to address some of those issues -- t all, but some,” Sims said.

Among concerns is a fear that under so-called News Media Bargaining Code, news businesses “will be able to somehow control ir algorithms,” Sims said.

“We’ll eng with m and clarify that so that re’s way that news media businesses can interfere with algorithms of Google or Facebook,” Sims said.

He said he would also clarify that platforms would t have to disclose more data about users than y already share.

“re’s thing in code that forces Google or Facebook to share data from individuals,” Sims said.

Sims was t prepared to negotiate “core” of code, which he described as “bits of glue that hold code toger, that make it workable.”

se included an arbitrator to address bargaining imbalance between tech giants and news businesses. If a platform and a news outlet can’t reach an agreement on price, an arbitrator would be appointed to make a binding decision.

Ar core aspect was a n-discrimination clause to prevent platforms from prioritizing Australia’s state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corp. and Special Broadcasting Service, whose news content will remain free.

Sims said he did t kw wher Facebook would act on its threat and block Australian news, but he suspected that to do so would “weaken” platform.

Spain and France and have both failed to make Facebook and Google pay for news through copyright law. Sims said he has spoken about Australia’s approach through fair trading laws to regulators in United States and Europe.

“y’re all wrestling with same problem,” Sims said.

(Im credit: AP)