Explained: What's Australia's new media bargain code all about?
Depending on who is explaining it, the code can oscillate between a sham to fill the coffers of Big Media to a plan for news publishers to get their due from Big Tech.
On February 17, the Australian House of Representatives passed a piece of legislation called the News Media Bargaining Code. Under the code, Facebook and Google are required to pay Australian news outlets for displaying their content.
In response, Facebook stopped displaying news content from the country. What forced Facebook to take such a drastic step? Why is Google signing deals with news publishers to pay them for their content? What’s this new Australian news media bargain code about? Why do governments and media publishers want to rein in Big Tech? And most importantly, will this news media bargain code really help journalism or simply tilt the balance of power from Big Tech to Big Media?
Chitranshu Tewari answers all these questions and breaks down the code.
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