The News Media Bargaining Code
What is the News Media Bargaining Code?
The News Media Bargaining Code is a new piece of government legislation that seeks to address the imbalance in the digital advertising market and see our news publishers get remunerated for the content they create.
It would require Google and Facebook to negotiate with publishers under arbitration to ensure everyone gets a fair deal.
It isn’t perfect - we’ve been talking about improvements, and it doesn’t address all of the issues that stem from Google’s market monopoly nor the lack of diversity in our news media sector.
But it could be a step in the right direction toward a more equitable media landscape, which is critical to a functioning democracy
What has Google's response been?
Google has been very aggressive in trying to influence the Australian Parliament.
They have used invasive pop up ads for YouTube, Chrome and Google Search users that misrepresent the Code, they’ve run experiments stripping hundreds of thousands Australians of quality news search results, and have threatened to block news and search for all Australians if they don’t get their way. Not to mention an unprecedented public campaign across social media.
All because they don’t want any rules set about how they operate.