{"id":284307,"date":"2021-06-26T02:09:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T23:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/facebook-rejects-talks-with-australia-publisher-may-test-online-law\/"},"modified":"2021-06-26T02:09:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T23:09:21","slug":"facebook-rejects-talks-with-australia-publisher-may-test-online-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/facebook-rejects-talks-with-australia-publisher-may-test-online-law\/","title":{"rendered":"#Facebook rejects talks with Australia publisher, may test online law"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Facebook<\/a> rejects talks with Australia publisher, may test online law<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Australia\u2019s competition watchdog is looking into a claim that\u00a0Facebook\u00a0refused a publisher\u2019s request to negotiate a licensing deal, the regulator told Reuters, setting the stage for the first test of the world\u2019s toughest online content law.<\/p>\n

The Conversation, which publishes current affairs commentary by academics, said it asked\u00a0Facebook\u00a0to begin talks as required under new\u00a0Australian\u00a0legislation that requires the social media firm and Alphabet\u2019s Google to negotiate content-supply deals with media outlets.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u00a0declined without giving a reason, The Conversation said, even though the publisher was among the first in Australia to secure a similar deal with Google in the lead-up to the law in 2020.<\/p>\n

The knockback could present the first test of a controversial mechanism unique to Australia\u2019s effort to claw back advertising dollars from Google and\u00a0Facebook: If they refuse to negotiate license fees with publishers, a government-app<\/a>ointed arbitrator may step in.<\/p>\n

In a statement responding to Reuters\u2019 questions,\u00a0Facebook\u2019s head of news<\/a> partnerships for Australia, Andrew Hunter, said the company was \u201cfocused on concluding commercial deals with a range of\u00a0Australian\u00a0publishers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter did not answer specific questions concerning The Conversation, but said\u00a0Facebook\u00a0was planning a separate initiative \u201cto support regional, rural and digital\u00a0Australian\u00a0newsrooms and public-interest journalism in the coming months,\u201d without giving details.<\/p>\n

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\"Mark
The US is among governments around the world that have been introducing legislation to rein in Big Tech giants like Facebook (its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, seen here testifying remotely to Congress on an issue regarding online services\u2019 liability for third-party content). <\/figcaption>
POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIf Google\u2019s done a deal with them, I can\u2019t see how\u00a0Facebook\u00a0should argue that they shouldn\u2019t,\u201d Rod Sims, the chair of the\u00a0Australian\u00a0Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of designation might need to come into play,\u201d he noted, using the term for assigning an arbitrator.<\/p>\n

Under the law, the decision to designate a Big Tech firm for intervention was made by the treasurer, which is advised by the ACCC, noted Sims, but \u201can absolute \u2018no\u2019 for an organization that should be getting a deal is something we\u2019ll look into.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Conversation was \u201cexactly what we had in mind with the Code,\u201d he said, although the situation had some way to play out before any further action would be taken.<\/p>\n

Governments around the world are introducing laws to make the tech giants compensate media companies for the links that drive readers \u2013 and advertising revenue \u2013 to their platforms. But Australia is the only country where the government may set the fees if negotiations fail, a factor that drove\u00a0Facebook\u00a0to block newsfeeds in the country just before it was passed.<\/p>\n

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who earlier this year negotiated with\u00a0Facebook\u00a0founder Mark Zuckerberg over the laws, was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n

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\"Logos
Australia\u2019s ability to set the fees if negotiations regarding online content fail between Facebook and a media provider drove\u00a0Facebook to block newsfeeds to Australia just before the online content law was passed.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSCRATCHING OUR HEADS\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the law took effect, a handful of the country\u2019s biggest media players, from News Corp to the\u00a0Australian\u00a0Broadcasting Corp, have struck deals with the tech giants.<\/p>\n

But some small and independent publishers whose content helps draw four-fifths of Australia\u2019s 25 million population to the\u00a0Facebook\u00a0site said the law had created a two-tier industry where rival titles that were owned by large parent companies secured deals while others missed out.<\/p>\n

Nelson Yap, publisher of\u00a0Australian\u00a0Property Journal, which is on a government register of media businesses covered by the law, said he was in early discussions with Google but had emailed\u00a0Facebook\u00a0twice with no response.<\/p>\n

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\"Facade
News Corp. is one of the major media companies that have struck deals with Facebook regarding online content in Australia, but smaller media companies say they\u2019ve had a harder time making similar agreements.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

He said he read\u00a0Facebook\u2019s public statements about talking to publishers and \u201cI\u2019m sitting here going, with whom? Not with us. Despite reaching out, we haven\u2019t heard anything. We\u2019re all scratching our heads, trying to work out what to do next.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Facebook\u00a0spokesperson did not answer a question about any contacts with the Property Journal. Country Press Australia, a regional newspaper industry group, said it was holding constructive talks with\u00a0Facebook\u00a0on behalf about 140 publishers.<\/p>\n

The Conversation editor Misha Ketchell said that \u201cobviously we are disappointed that we haven\u2019t been able to engage in negotiations with\u00a0Facebook\u00a0so far, but we remain optimistic that we will be able to reach an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACCC\u2019s Sims said the deal pipeline had \u201cgone quieter than I would have envisaged\u201d but urged smaller publishers to be patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand I\u2019m concerned that people aren\u2019t getting a response to the emails, on the other hand I have seen it before and then things change and deals get done,\u201d he said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Facebook rejects talks with Australia publisher, may test online law” Australia\u2019s competition watchdog is looking into a claim that\u00a0Facebook\u00a0refused a publisher\u2019s request to negotiate a licensing deal, the regulator told Reuters, setting the stage for the first test of the world\u2019s toughest online content law. The Conversation, which publishes current affairs commentary by academics, said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":284308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/facebook-tests-aussy-law.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[110313,20358,4974,70370],"class_list":["post-284307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-25-21","tag-australia","tag-facebook","tag-publishers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}