The Polish government announced last month that it would enact a “freedom of expression protection bill” to counteract censorship by Facebook, Twitter, Google and others. Australia is also considering legislation that would require Google and Facebook to pay for the publication of media news content. There has been a lot of discussion in Taiwan about whether to follow the practices of Poland and Australia. The chairman of the board of directors of the Chinese Academy of Democracy, Tseng Chien-yuan, and the chairman of Taiwan’s Ki Progressive Party, Chen Yi-chi, agree with this issue and believe that there must be appropriate laws to regulate it.
According to the Breitbart News, the Polish government intends to enact the “Freedom of Expression of Personal Opinion and Freedom of Access and Dissemination of Information on the Internet Act,” which would give media users the legal right to file a complaint in court when technology giants on social media platforms impose bans and remove content on them. The bill would give media users the legal right to file a complaint with the courts when technology giants on social media platforms impose bans and remove content from their accounts, while social media companies would have to restore deleted content or accounts or face fines of up to 1.8 million euros.
In response to the question of whether Taiwan should follow the Polish legislation, Chen Yi-chi, chairman of Taiwan’s Kiwanis Party, said that Taiwan should follow the protection of freedom of speech market to regulate. He believes that the current regulation of social media in the European Union is quite strict and can consider studying the EU legislation.
According to a recent report by CNBC, Australia intends to legislate to force digital platforms such as Facebook and Google to pay the media for news content. The law is currently being discussed, and if it is eventually passed, these large tech giants will have to negotiate with local media companies for payment, and if they cannot reach an agreement, a government arbitrator will determine the price.
For Australia to legislate to require Facebook Google and other digital platforms to pay, Zeng Jianyuan believes that Australia certainly has this power, which is also the behavior of sovereign states, but sovereign states to regulate the Internet order, but also in line with universal values of human rights protection principles, can not be like the Chinese Communist regime under the mainland completely banned Google, or under the conditions of cooperation with the Communist Party before allowing Google to land.
Zeng Jianyuan pointed out that this is an emerging international human rights issue, and many traditional media reports and news articles are also transmitted through Google. Of course, this reciprocity also depends on the size of the country. Larger countries, with stronger traditional media, are in a position to compete with online media, but some small countries, if Google is unwilling to provide services, will be isolated from the online world, I’m afraid.
As Australia requires social media to pay, Google and Facebook once rebounded, and even choked to close the search engine in Australia. Chen Yizi pointed out that these transnational technology giants have grown to the point where they can intimidate and blackmail sovereign countries. If many of the problems brought about by globalization cannot be handled by individual countries, then the problems brought about by transnational technology giants and Internet platforms cannot be faced and solved by a single country alone.
In response to the question of whether digital platforms such as Facebook and Google should pay the news media, the Australian government said on the 15th that it would reach an agreement with the two companies to pay the Australian news media after consulting with Google and Facebook.
According to a Bloomberg report afterwards, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg held talks with Facebook CEO Zuckerman and Google CEO Pichai last weekend. After the meeting, Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the Australian government is close to reaching “very important business deals” with Google and Facebook on the issue of technology companies paying the news media, and that significant progress has been made.
The Australian parliament will also consider a bill requiring Google and Facebook to pay the news media from this week, and it is rumored that Canada and the European Union are also considering following up on the legislation.
Chen Yizi said that Google and Facebook have also invested heavily in Taiwan, but it seems a bit complicated to require payment to Taiwan media. According to Chen, this is an issue that the government of the Republic of China will have to face. In particular, Taiwan’s Internet legislation is inadequate, and Taiwan’s media authorities such as the National Communications Commission (NCC) should reconsider the measures and regulations for Internet platforms.
Chen Yiqi said that up to now, Taiwan society has not yet realized the importance and necessity of regulating technology giants, and if legislation is enacted in the future, the technology giants will definitely exert pressure on Taiwan’s political figures or parties in the process.
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