At first glance it sounds almost like a kind of censorship, but the situation is much more complicated. In Australia in the last few hours a law has been approved by the House of Representatives giving the summary stop to free news on search engines and social networks . The law has yet to be approved in the Senate, but in theory it should not find a major obstacle to overcome in this body.
What does this law mean? Basically the giants of the web, such as Google and Facebook , will have to pay publishers to use the news published by the newspapers . On the one hand, this law serves to limit what happens on Google News, also given the AMP display of the articles and the different advertising circuits that in some ways correspond to less revenue to the editorial offices. However, Google has already reached an agreement with various publishers to actually pay for articles and news that it will spread on its platform . And not only that: Big G. has made an agreement with publishers from other countries as well , such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the United States and The Times and The Sun in Great Britain, always to pay for the news that will be displayed on the search engine. There is also an agreement with Nine Entertainment, a major Australian media group.
This isn't exactly new to Google. It had already entered into agreements of this type in the past . For example, in 2020 he signed a collaboration with Spiegel Group (Germany), with Diarios Associados (Brazil) and with Solstice Media (Australia) to have quality paid content. In any case, as reported by the Financial Times, the figures of the new agreements that the Mountain View company is making in Australia provide far greater sums , given that this time there is a law to act as a barbell.
On Facebook the situation is different . The social network has decided to ban the viewing and sharing of Australian and international news , precisely for not having to deal with this new law. The various Australian publishers will be able to continue to publish content on Facebook, but not with direct links to their portals. However, the CEO of Facebook Australia has to object to the law because, according to him, he misunderstands the relationship between the platform and the publishers who use it to give visibility to their content. Facebook's decision is influenced solely by the law , and not by an attempt to put a spoke in the wheel of publishers.
This probably creates a precedent that some might call “dangerous.” Australia's move could kick-start a series of measures around the world to protect both publishers and readers and the way in which they are “exposed” to the news by browsing on Google. Undoubtedly a thorny issue which we will follow the evolution of in the coming months.
