Australia has reached out to India among several countries, including Canada, France, and the UK, in a move to stitch a global coalition against tech giants Google and Facebook amid a faceoff over compensation for sharing news content from media companies on their platforms.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, and later said that they “discussed the progress” on Australia’s “News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code Bill 2020”.
Under the proposed law — News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code Bill 2020 — Australia seeks to mandate a bargaining code that aims to force Google and Facebook to compensate media companies for using their content. The legislation is being closely watched the world over, given that it sets a precedent in regulating social media across geographies.
While Google has agreed to pay news organizations in Australia, Facebook has decided to blackout news content from the country on its social networking platform.
From Monday, the Bill will be debated in the Australian Senate, which is expected to adopt the law by the end of the week. It has already been passed by the Lower House of Australian Parliament.