The inventor of the world wide web says proposed Australian media laws requiring tech giants Google and Facebook to pay for displaying news content risks setting a precedent that “could make the web unworkable around the world”. Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web in 1989, said the draft legislation “risks breaching a fundamental principle of the web by requiring payment for linking between certain content online”. In a submission.
Facebook and Google will have to pay to use content from news media organisations under the Australian government’s new code. Photograph: Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images
The Australian government tabled world-first media legislation in parliament on Wednesday that will force Google and Facebook to negotiate a fair payment with news organisations for using their content in Facebook’s newsfeed and Google’s search.
The Australian law is separate to a recent deal Facebook made to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, but has a similar motivation. The social network signed the deals as it faces the threat of a government crackdown over its dominance of online advertising.
Dec 19, 2020
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) A Google executive said on Friday that a proposed Australian law to make digital platforms pay for news was unworkable and its proposed arbitration model was biased toward media businesses.
Google Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Mel Silva made her first public comments on the details of the proposed legislation since it was introduced to Parliament last week.
The so-called News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code would force Google and Facebook to compensate Australian news media for the journalism that they link to.
“It forces Google to pay to show links in an unprecedented intervention that would fundamentally break how search engines work,” Silva said in a statement.
Google says Australian law on paying for news is unworkable
by Rod McGuirk, The Associated Press
Posted Dec 18, 2020 12:23 am EDT
Last Updated Dec 18, 2020 at 12:26 am EDT
FILE - This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Google mobile phone icon, in Philadelphia. The Australian government said on Friday, July 31, 2020 it plans to give Google and Facebook three months to negotiate with Australian media businesses fair pay for news content. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
CANBERRA, Australia A Google executive said on Friday that a proposed Australian law to make digital platforms pay for news was unworkable and its proposed arbitration model was biased toward media businesses.
Silva said “binding arbitration within the code could be a reasonable backstop – so long as the arbitration model is fair.” However, the proposed arbitration model was “skewed to the interests of one type of business only,” Silva said, referring to media. Google said it had provided a better model with Google News Showcase. Google is paying participating publishers to provide paywalled content to News Showcase users through the model that it launched in October.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Google says Australia’s law is unworkable. “By imposing final-offer arbitration with biased criteria, it encourages publishers to go to arbitration rather than reaching an agreement,” Silva said of the government’s model.