Hi Everyone!
I’d like to share some recent developments in the European Union and Australia regarding controversial moves to make internet giants pay to post any news media on their platforms.
Based on my understanding, in 2019 the European Union overhauled their copyright regime. A strict Copyright Directive was upheld by the courts which sought to encourage fair bargaining between news media editors and online platforms, on the premise that news should not be free. Under this directive, online platforms such as Facebook need to sign licensing agreements with musicians, authors, news publishers, journalists, and performers if they use their work.
Taking these ideas a step further, Australia recently moved to revise its internet copyright law to push platforms such as Facebook and Google to pay for news content. These reforms have been very controversial. Google initially threatened to pull out from Australia, but ultimately agreed to abide by the law. Yesterday Facebook responded by effectively “blocking users in Australia from viewing or spreading news on its platform.” Facebook is working with the Australian government to find a middle ground, but in the meantime, it seems pretty crazy to think that users in Australia can’t view or share any news content on Facebook. (See: https://globalnews.ca/news/7648149/google-facebook-block-australia-canada/).
Following the events in Australia, the EU seems to also be considering revising Copyright legislation to collect payments for news stories. (See: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9240471/EU-plan-copy-Australia-make-big-tech-companies-Google-Facebook-pay-news.html) The articles above seem to also suggest that Canada could face a similar fate, as Ottawa plans to implement similar legislation.
I wanted to share this because I think the reasoning behind these changes is very interesting and somewhat relates to Jenny’s post and the class discussion on IP law and inequality. It has been said that these laws are meant to uphold “copyright as intended” and to “lessen the “value gap” between the revenues earned by web platforms and content creators” (see: https://www.econotimes.com/EU-planning-to-follow-Australia-and-make-Google-Facebook-pay-for-news-content-1601948).
From the EconoTimes article: ““With their dominant market position in search, social media and advertising, large digital platforms create power imbalances and benefit significantly from news content,” Saliba told FT. “I think it is only fair that they pay back a fair amount.”” There seems to be some momentum to use copyright reforms to reduce inequalities between giant actors and smaller publishers, instead of continuing to operate under a regime where the rich get richer. However, some of the articles I have included above discuss the potential issues with this approach, including the concern that the internet would become unworkable. I think Facebook’s response in Australia demonstrates just that.
I would love to hear what others think!
Communications Law