Aus legislation to make Google, Fb pay for news in parliament next week

 

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will acquaint milestone enactment with power Alphabet's Google and Facebook to pay distributers and telecasters for content one week from now, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Friday.

Australia is on course to turn into the principal nation to require Facebook and Google to pay for news content, enactment that is as a rule firmly watched around the planet.

"The bill will currently be considered by the parliament from the week initiating 15 February 2021," Frydenberg said in a messaged explanation.

With bipartisan help, the enactment - which Google says is "unfeasible" and will drive it to pull out of the nation inside and out - could come into law this month.

The increasing speed of the bill came as a senate advisory group looking at the proposition suggested no corrections.

Delegates for Google and Facebook didn't promptly remark when reached by Reuters.

The U.S. search and web-based media goliaths have squeezed Australia to relax the enactment, with senior heads from the two organizations holding converses with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Frydenberg.

Google a week ago dispatched a stage in Australia offering news it has paid for, striking its own substance manages distributers in a drive to show the proposed enactment is pointless.

A month ago Reuters said it had marked an arrangement with Google to be the principal worldwide news supplier to Google News Showcase. Reuters is possessed by news and data supplier Thomson Reuters Corp.

Facebook, Google face widening crackdown over online content

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Tech giants like Facebook and Google came under increasing pressure in Europe on Monday when countries proposed stricter rules to force them to block extreme material such as terrorist propaganda and child porn.

Britain called for a first-of-its-kind watchdog for social media that could fine executives and even ban companies. And a European Union parliamentary committee approved a bill giving internet companies an hour to remove terror-related material or face fines that could reach into the billions.
"We are forcing these firms to clean up their act once and for all," said British Home Secretary Sajid Javid, whose department collaborated on Britain's proposal.

Opponents warned the British and EU measures could stifle innovation and strengthen the dominance of technology giants because smaller companies won't have the money to comply. That, in turn, could turn Google and Facebook into the web's censors, they said.

The push to make the big companies responsible for the torrent of material they carry has largely been driven by Europeans. But it picked up momentum after the March 15 mosque shootings in New Zealand that killed 50 people and were livestreamed for 17 minutes. Facebook said it removed 1.5 million videos of the attacks in the 24 hours afterward.

The US, where government action is constrained by the First Amendment right to free speech and freedom of the press, has taken a more hands-off approach, though on Tuesday, a House committee will press Google and Facebook executives on whether they are doing enough to curb the spread of hate crimes and white nationalism.


 Australia last week made it a crime for social media platforms not to quickly remove "abhorrent violent material."...Read More