Big Tech ‘needs real sanctions’

News Corp Australia has backed major recommendations for regulation of digital platforms.

Digital giants such as Facebook and Google must face “real consequences” for breaching a code of conduct, News Corp Australia says

News Corp Australia has backed major recommendations for regulation of the digital platforms but says the measures should be strengthened to prohibit publishers’ content and data being used by the technology giants until they sign up to a code of conduct backed by legislation.

Digital giants such as Facebook and Google must face “real consequences” for breaching a code of conduct proposed by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to curb their market power when dealing with traditional news media outlets.

In a strongly worded submission to the ACCC inquiry into the impact of digital platforms on traditional media, News said the competition regulator rather than the Australian Communications and Media Authority should be charged with enforcing the code.

The submission follows the final report of the ACCC, released in July, that found the technology giants had market power that needed to be checked. It made 23 recommendations that received broad support from the media industry but faced opposition from the tech giants.

The federal government has said previously that it supports the ACCC’s findings and will respond to the recommendations by the end of the year.

News, which publishes newspapers in all states as well as The Australian, and owns 65 per cent of the Foxtel subscription television platform, said the final report made findings that established a clear impetus for the government to regulate the market power of platforms.

In a submission to the federal government on the final report of the ACCC, News also backed a call for an inquiry into the advertising technology industry that is dominated by Google and Facebook. News said it was time for light to be shone on this “opaque by design” sector because it was unclear how much ad spending was being provided to publishers or retained by “ad-tech” intermediaries.

News publishers have seen circulation revenue plummet, leaving them reliant on advertising revenue that is unable to make up for the loss of print circulation and advertising revenue.

“Digital ad growth is almost entirely captured by the ‘duopoly’ of Google and Facebook, not least by reason of the vast troves of user data protected within their walled gardens,” News said.

“Such data is increasingly important in ‘programmatic advertising’, rapidly becoming the most popular form of online advertising, where ad targeting is automated and primarily based on analysis of user data.”

News said the digital giants should be held to a code backed by legislation and be prohibited from accessing content or using data linked to the traffic generated by consumers of publishers’ content until they did so.

“We consider that there must be real consequences for non-compliance,” News said.

Other submissions have also backed the code, with Commercial Radio Australia wanting it to address “glaring inequalities” in the regulatory structure.

“This has the potential to exclude the commercial radio industry from the Digital Platform Code, leaving radio to fight the bargaining imbalance with the digital platforms unsupported by government or regulators,” the submission said.

The body, which represents the interests of Nova Entertainment, Australian Radio Network, Southern Cross Austereo and Macquarie Media, said the code should also govern relationships involving commercial radio stations.

The Australian Association of National Advertisers welcomed recommendations for harmonisation of regulation, an inquiry into advertising tech and media agencies as well as changes to the privacy act. The body said an inquiry into ad tech services and media agencies would help small advertisers understand the value chain and protect their brands.

In a separate submission, Country Press Australia pushed for local and regional journalism grants, as well as urged for the implementation of tax offsets or charitable status for some philanthropic support of public interest journalism.