Australian passes media legislation on revenue sharing

Australian passes media legislation on revenue sharing

The new law aims at forcing social media giants to share revenue with the local media for using news content

The Australian Parliament last week passed new legislation "News Media Bargaining Code," that intends to make it mandatory for social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google to share revenue with the local media for using their news content.

"The legislation will help level the playing field (and) see Australia news media businesses (get) paid for generating original content," Australia Treasurer Josh Frydenberg stated, terming it as a "significant milestone".

The new law was passed by Parliament on 25 February 2021.

The new law now subjects tech giants to the law to share revenue with local Australia news organizations.

The legislation that was proposed in December 2020 to enable the local media organizations get paid for their original content when it is used as news feed by social media platforms for its users, The law mandates that corporations like Facebook and Google pay local news companies when local content is spread on their platforms.

All over the world, this issue is being debated as tech giants insert advertisements with the news and earn money on them, while those companies who spend money to generate news are denied their share in the revenue. Australia has taken a lead that many countries might follow soon.

Before the new legislation was adopted by the Parliament, a logjam was witnessed with Facebook implementing a ban on Australian media for a few days to mark its anguish and shake the users who deny on their mobile phones to new updates.

Subsequently, Facebook reversed its policy and said they were happy that the Australian government has "agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them."

One of the amendments is the criteria for being subject to the law under which the concerned minister must consider if the social media company already has existing contracts with local news organizations before requiring revenue sharing. The modified law also gives social media companies one month of notice before the law applies, making it a somewhat win-win situation for all parties concerned.