The new legislation which the Australian government might pass stands to make the tech giants like Google and Facebook pay the media companies for the news contents.
But the new law does not sit well with the U.S-based tech giants, who are the two of the world’s biggest tech companies. To make matters extreme, Google is even threatening to shut down its search engine in the continent if the law is enacted.
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg held talks with Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Google counterpart Sundar Pichai over the weekend. “We’re very close to some very significant commercial deals. We have made great progress.”
According to sources, parliament will consider the legislation from this week. It will give the internet giants an incentive to agree on compensation terms for news companies before the law is passed.
If Facebook and Google didn’t manage to strike a beneficial deal with the Australian administration, soon, Canada and the European Union will follow similar legislation.
Google has proposed that compensating publishers through its News Showcase product, under which it pays media outlets for curated content, rather than be bound by the legislation, will help both the company and the media outlets.
The Australian government is willing to let the technology companies avoid paying for news snippets if the media companies sign up to Google Showcase and Facebook News.
For further details, we will have to wait and see what new negotiations arise.
