SYDNEY, Sept 22 - Reuters: Facebook Inc tells Australian publishers it has stopped negotiating licensing deals, an email shown by Reuters reportedly showed, a move that came just six months after the passing of a law designed to make tech giants pay for news content.
While Facebook has announced deals with most of the country's largest news outlets, some companies including TV broadcaster SBS and smaller publishers were left out in the cold, raising questions about the scope and effectiveness of the ground-breaking law.
Australia is the only country with a law where government reserves the rights to set the fees if negotiations between tech giants and news providers fail, but rejected companies are left with little recourse for the time being and wait for the government to review the law in 2022 as planned.
Nick Shelton, founder of Broadsheet Media, a website that publishes entertainment news, reviews and listings and was rebuffed by Facebook, said the decision to close off on new deals was clearly an attempt from Facebook to limit their exposure to independent publishers. The Special Broadcasting Service, or SBS, one of Australia's five national free-to-air broadcasters and the country's main source of foreign language news, said Facebook declined to enter negotiations despite months of attempts and said it was surprised and disappointed It noted it had concluded a deal with Google successfully.
This outcome is at odds with the Government's intent of supporting public interest journalism, in particular by including public service broadcasters in the code framework for remuneration, an SBS spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
The U.S. social media giant has inked contracts with a range of small Australian long media companies, including News Corp and the Australian Broadcasting Corp, and has a collective bargaining arrangement with regional publishers. However, only a handful of independent publisher have reached deals.
Other rejected publishers are the Conversation https: www.reuters.com. com technology exclusive-facebook rejects-talks - with-Australia - publisher-testing - worlds - 2021 - 06 - 25, which publishes public affairs commentary by academics, Reuters has previously reported. That led to a rebuke from the regulator who drafted the law. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission declined to comment on Wednesday.
Under the law, which caused Facebook to temporarily block third-party content on the newsfeeds in February in the country, Facebook and Google must negotiate with news outlets for content that drives traffic to their websites or face possible government intervention.
But before there is any federal probe, the federal treasurer must decide that either Facebook or Google failed to negotiate in good faith, a step known as designation A representative for Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was not immediately available to comment.
The rejection of SBS and the Conversation flies in the face of the law's core proposition that it should be required to compensate public interest journalism said Peter Lewis, director of the Centre for Responsible Technology, a think tank.
The treasurer has no alternative but to redesignate Facebook to ensure that it meets its commitments in public interest journalism in Australia.