Australia will force Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to share advertising revenue with local media firms, the country’s treasurer said on Monday, becoming one of the first countries to require digital platforms to pay for content they use.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the move comes after talks with Facebook and Alphabet failed to yield a voluntary code to address complaints by domestic media players that the tech giants have too tight a grip on advertising, their main source of income. “We understand the challenge that we face, this is a big mountain to climb,” Mr. Frydenberg said.
The government has asked the country’s competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to frame a mandatory code of conduct between media outlets and digital platforms.
Mr. Frydenberg said the mandatory code will include sharing of data, ranking and display of news content and the sharing of revenue generated from news, adding that it would also establish penalty and binding dispute resolution mechanisms.
