Australian government makes rules for distribution of news revenues such as Google and Facebook

Big IT companies such as Google and Facebook make profits by collecting and delivering various news contents. However, it is pointed out that the news production company is not paying a sufficient price. For this reason, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s ACCC has instructed the creation of rules for digital platforms such as Google and Facebook to distribute revenue from news content to the existing media that created the content.

It has been pointed out that large IT companies, including Google and Facebook, have previously obtained significant advertising revenue by extracting article information through news sites. On the other hand, accusing them of not paying sufficient price for the existing media for posting news, ACCC announced the results of a survey in July 2019 that it is necessary to strengthen regulations on Google and Facebook and improve competition with existing media. .

After this move, the Australian government asked ACCC to come up with new rules by repeating dialogue between digital media such as Google and Facebook and existing media. The new rule requires that digital media actively support existing media, such as providing notifications or advice to existing media when there is a change in the algorithm for distributing revenue from content created by existing news media and displaying search results. It is said that it was doing.

Discussions on the establishment of autonomous rules were scheduled to continue until November 2020, but the initial negotiations were well underway as existing media revenues declined due to the spread of Corona 19, so the Australian government has instructed the ACCC to create enforceable rules.

It argues that it is possible to equalize competition by distributing profits to existing media, which are content creators, by digital platforms such as Google and Facebook regarding the establishment of compulsory rules.

It also pointed out that media companies are facing great fiscal pressure and that Corona 19 has led to a decrease in advertising revenue in all areas. He argued that the digital platform fundamentally changed the way media content was produced, distributed, and consumed, and that the digital platform that delivers news is the time to make many changes to increase transparency.

Enforced rules include penalties and sanctions, and it is also conceivable to resolve disputes between digital and existing media in a binding process. The affected platforms include not only Google and Facebook, but also social media such as Twitter and Instagram. The draft rule is expected to be submitted by July 2020. Related information can be found here .