In recent news, Australia has extended its hand towards India and several other countries such as Canada, France, and the UK in order to form a global coalition against technology behemoths like Google and Facebook. This comes in the backdrop of an ongoing tussle over compensation for sharing news content from various media companies on these platforms.
Australia’s proposed legislation, titled ‘News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code Bill 2020’, dictates a bargaining code aimed at compelling Google and Facebook to compensate media companies for using their content. The Bill is slated to be a pioneer in the regulation of social media across countries.
A 2019 report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), termed ‘Digital Platforms Inquiry’, highlighted an essential imbalance of power between news media and online platforms. Specifically targeting Google and Facebook, the report underscored their significant bargaining power in relations with many news media organizations.
Introducing the Australian Media Platform Bill: Payment to News Outlets
The proposed bill will enforce big tech and social media giants like Facebook and Google to pay local news outlets for using their content. These tech firms will need to negotiate their payment rates with local publishers and broadcasters for any content displayed on their platforms.
Arbitration Provision and Fine Enforcement in Australia’s Media Platform Bill
If no agreement is reached, an arbiter is appointed to adjudicate. There are also provisions for hefty fines if agreements are not formalized.
Issues at Hand with the Proposed Bill
The media industry already benefits from traffic directed to them by digital platforms. The proposed rules, however, would expose internet companies to “unmanageable levels of financial and operational risk”. Journalism, being a public good and a pillar of democracy, is taken advantage of by digital platforms, which leech on its content without sharing the associated costs.
Google’s recent agreement with French publishers to pay for online news content shows that the payment for news isn’t the primary issue for the tech giants. The battle in Australia, rather, revolves around the extent of control these companies would retain over their payout processes.
India’s Perspective in the Global Media Compensation Discussion
In the Indian context, policymakers have so far honed in on the dominance of intermediaries like Google and Facebook, as service providers struggle to reach consumers without these platforms. Serious dialogue on the impact of these intermediary platforms on the health of news media outlets is still in nascent stages.
According to a 2020 FICCI-EY report, India accounts for 300 million users of online news sites, portals, and aggregators, making it the second-largest online news-consuming nation after China.
The State of Digital Advertising in India
Digital advertising expenditure in India grew by 24% year-on-year to Rs. 27,900 crore in 2019, according to EY estimates. This figure is projected to inflate to Rs. 51,340 crore by 2022. In contrast to the proposed Australian Bill, Indian laws do not require news aggregators to reimburse publishers.
Way Forward: A Unique Media Market
The Indian media market is distinctly diverse, reflecting the nation’s linguistic diversity. Thus, while the Australian development is significant for India, it might not provide an ideal template for the way forward. Digital platforms, though democratizing access and bringing about immense social gains, have also contributed to the adverse effects such as the spread of fake news. Governments should mitigate these fallouts to safeguard democracy.