Tech titans Google and Facebook want to rule your world

In July, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission issued a report on the devastating impact of digital platforms. It was the deepest dive yet by a regulator into the predatory business models of Google, Facebook and Twitter, exposing monopoly powers, cavalier approaches to user privacy, pathological secrecy and parasitical freeloading on businesses such as News Corp Australia, our parent. The ACCC provided the Morrison government with a reform road map showing how to balance competing interests via sensible measures such as a code of conduct for the tech titans and media companies to govern revenue-sharing, competition and fair use of journalism.

Josh Frydenberg called for further submissions and said a response from government would come by the end of the year. The titans are unleashing a last-ditch lobbying assault in Canberra to roll back reforms. Complicating the core issues has been an attempt to conflate the ACCC’s remedies with the concerted campaign by the Your Right to Know coalition seeking to improve media freedom. In a sense, both issues are about our democracy. The titans have undermined the viability of journalism through their “take now, pay never” model of content pillaging; the creep of national security has made traditional reporting difficult, leaving journalists open to prosecution and citizens less informed. Canberra has no excuse for not dealing properly, and separately, with each of these reforms.

As outlined by the ACCC, we need legislated standards. Platforms must be fair and transparent in dealing with publishers. Anti-competitive practices must be outlawed, with proper penalties for noncompliance. We want a code of conduct backed by robust laws enforced by the competition watchdog, not the Australian Communications and Media Authority as proposed. A new ACCC digital branch to monitor potentially dodgy practices and to enforce competition and consumer issues is a wise move; it should be able to crack open the algorithms created and used by the titans. We seek a fresh inquiry into the supply of ad tech services, a market that is opaque by design and dominated by Google and Facebook. Platforms should be banned from using any publisher’s content and from collecting any data generated from it unless all publishers have negotiated agreements. Like it or not, the big platforms are unavoidable trading partners. We produce stories, pictures, podcasts and TV programs, and make money by selling content or attaching advertising to it. We should be able to reach our subscribers directly through that content. But tech giants have eroded our ability to monetise it. We don’t believe in onerous regulation, which stymies innovation and adds costs. But the giants have no urge to play ball — fairly, openly or ethically.

Tech titans are not used to oversight. ACCC chairman Rod Sims said he found it astounding that in discussions with Facebook and Google the companies regularly would claim they should not be subject to any mandatory codes. They want to operate under a “trust us” regime and are indifferent to what is happening on their platforms. Laissez faire is working for them. Last year Google earned $US136bn, largely in advertising; across the period, Facebook’s ad revenue was $US55bn. Their combined worth is greater than the value of our sharemarket. Can they be trusted? Of course not. The question is: can these giants be brought under control, their dominance checked for the common good? Authorities around the world are watching what happens here. The government’s move will have a profound effect on the future of news media and the lives of all Australians.