{"id":16352,"date":"2021-02-01T05:23:51","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T05:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationaus.com\/?p=15978"},"modified":"2021-02-01T05:23:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T05:23:51","slug":"govt-wont-budge-on-big-tech-bargaining-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/01\/govt-wont-budge-on-big-tech-bargaining-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt won\u2019t budge on Big Tech bargaining code"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government will<\/strong> not budge on its controversial Big Tech news media bargaining code, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison staring down significant threats from Facebook and Google ahead of a showdown in Parliament later this month.<\/p>\n

The media bargaining code, which will compel Facebook and Google to enter forced arbitration with media companies to determine revenue sharing deals for the use of news content, is set to be debated in Parliament later this month after a Senate committee hands down its report on the legislation.<\/p>\n

Google recently threatened to withdraw its search service from Australia if the code is implemented, while Facebook had earlier said it may block Australian news content as a result of the code.<\/p>\n

\"Scott
Scott Morrison: Digital adoption not digital creation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Big business and other tech firms also railed against the code, which unsurprisingly has the backing of numerous media companies and most federal politicians.<\/p>\n

Addressing the National Press Club on Monday, Mr Morrison stood by the code despite the brinkmanship from the Big Tech players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are big technology companies, and what\u2019s important to Australia is that we set the rules that are right for our people,\u201d Mr Morrison said. \u201cAnd having a news environment in this country that is one that is sustainable and is supported commercially, then this is vital to how democracies function.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when I was Treasurer, when I would go to G20, I\u2019d be talking not just about if they were paying tax, but I began conversations about antitrust and competition issues. Australia is being true to our word again.\u201d<\/p>\n

It came after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg revealed that Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had personally discussed the code with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, the minister Paul Fletcher and I had a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook who reached out to talk about the code and the impact on Facebook,\u201d Mr Frydenberg told ABC Insiders on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do [take it seriously], it was a very constructive discussion. Mark Zuckerberg didn\u2019t convince me to back down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Morrison said the bargaining code is just the federal government trying to apply the rules of the physical world to the digital world, and that other countries should follow Australia\u2019s lead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to see more alignment between the world\u2019s economies on these sorts of things. Our simple rule around digital is that we just want the digital world to be the same that exists in the physical world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has changed, digital technologies have affected that and we\u2019re trying to ensure our regulatory system keeps pace with that change to ensure journalists can do their jobs, not just in taxpayer-funded organisations but commercial ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to antitrust practices, Australia has taken a very consistent and principled stand. We want to work through with the companies on these sorts of things, we don\u2019t want these things sitting in the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims, one the key architects of the code, has also stood by the policy, saying the forced final offer arbitration is vital and cannot be taken out of the code, as the big tech firms have called for.<\/p>\n

The senate committee scrutinising the Big Tech bargaining code legislation is due to hand down its report in mid-February, before the bill is expected to be debated in Parliament in the sitting fortnight at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The post Govt won\u2019t budge on Big Tech bargaining code<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on InnovationAus<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal government will not budge on its controversial Big Tech news media bargaining code, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison staring down significant threats from Facebook and Google ahead of a showdown in Parliament later this month. The media bargaining code, which will compel Facebook and Google to enter forced arbitration with media companies to…<\/p>\n

The post Govt won\u2019t budge on Big Tech bargaining code<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1924,725,728,3413,1940,1892,516],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16353,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352\/revisions\/16353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}