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Microsoft and EU publishers push for tech firms to make Australia-style news payments
- The US tech giant and four EU lobbying groups are planning to ‘mandate payments’ for use of news content from online ‘gatekeepers with dominant market power’
- The move comes as Australia nears passing a law requiring Facebook and Google to negotiate with news outlets for payment for their content or face fines
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Microsoft is teaming up with European publishers to push for a system to make big tech platforms pay for news, raising the stakes in the brewing battle over whether Google and Facebook should pay for journalism.
The US tech giant and four big European Union (EU) news industry lobbying groups unveiled their plan on Monday to work together to come up with a solution to “mandate payments” for use of news content from online “gatekeepers with dominant market power”.
They said they will “take inspiration” from proposed legislation in Australia to force tech platforms to share revenue with news companies and which includes an arbitration system to resolve disputes over a fair price for news.
Facebook last week blocked Australians from accessing and sharing news on its platform, in a surprise response to the government’s proposals that sparked a big public backlash.
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Britain on Monday said it was “concerned” about the issue, with British culture minister to meet Facebook this week to raise its view, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said on Monday.
“He is expected to meet Facebook this week,” the spokesman said, declining to give a specific date for the meeting.
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“We’re concerned about the access to news being restricted in Australia and we are setting up the Digital Markets Unit as part of the Competition and Markets Authority from April and we will consult on its function later this year,” he said.
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