Bringing Big Tech to heel on content

One of the few benefits of COVID-19 appears to be that it has sharpened the senses of government and regulators as to the perilous state of the Australian media.

The mass extinction events in media around the world have woken Josh Frydenberg and Paul Fletcher to the existential threat media and, by extension, democracy could face by the end of this crisis.

COVID-19 may be a catalyst for the decline of media in this country, but it’s not the primary cause. That honour goes to tech giants Google and Facebook, which for years have profited from the hard work of journalists producing unique content, and paying nothing in return.

Make no mistake, this is a big and bold move against Big Tech from the Morrison government and they should be credited for it.

If the government and the ACCC are good to their word, Australia can expect to be the first country in the world to have a legal regime between tech firms and media companies producing original journalism.

In raw terms this means media companies, which produce the original journalism that Google and Facebook rely upon for billions of clicks a year, will be paid for access to this content. It could also mean access to user data, which Google and Facebook use to make billions of dollars in advertising.

This is not a debate, as big tech would often frame it, about tech v newspaper dinosaurs. Media companies like News Corp (publisher of The Australian) understand mistakes were made about content availability in the early days of the internet, and are more than happy to try to compete in digital publishing.

But Google and Facebook both want to give the content away for free and take the advertising that goes with that.

As well, algorithms that platforms use to rate stories seem rarely to prioritise original journalism and encourage free click stories rather than paid content — the one source of new revenue left to media companies.

Don’t believe the lines from Big Tech about news being unprofitable; news is hugely important for Google and Face­book for engagement of their audience and the ability to track the data that comes with that.

Despite initially recommending a voluntary code of conduct, Rod Sims and now the Treasurer and Communications Minister seem to get what other global regulators understand: Google and Facebook will only act when they’re forced to. This realisation might save an industry.