Australian Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in an interview with the US media on Tuesday (10) that he would pass the News Media Bargaining Act, which would allow media organizations in the country to charge digital platforms for reprinting news content and require companies operating in Australia to comply. This means that Google and Facebook (Fb), two of the biggest companies in the United States, have failed to hire a lobby to resist the bill and are unable to turn the situation around.
The British media reported on Monday (9) that Google and Fb spent a lot of money to hire five of the most influential lobbying companies in Australia, and some of the lobbyists are close to Australian Prime Minister Morrison. But Fletcher on Tuesday then said: “The bill will be passed soon and the government expects companies operating in Australia to comply with our laws.”
Fletcher disclosed that the highest level of government had discussed with Google’s chief executive Phi poor, during which it was made clear that it did not want Google and Fb to exit Australia, but asked the other party to still comply with Australian law, adding, “We have seen a number of U.S. science companies in the past few years, as long as they are not satisfied with our regulatory measures, they threaten to leave.” He cited Amazon’s refusal to cooperate with changes to Australia’s tax laws by banning Australian users from logging in in 2018 as an example, implying that the authorities would not change their attitude due to threats from Google and others to pull out of Australia.
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