Australia to make Google and Facebook pay for news content

Global digital platforms Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for news content in Australia, the government said on Monday as the coronavirus pandemic causes a collapse in advertising revenue.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, known as ACCC, would release in late July draft rules for the platforms to pay fair compensation for the journalistic content siphoned from news media.

Frydenberg said he believed that Australia could succeed where other countries, including France and Spain, had failed in making Google and Facebook pay.

"We're very conscious of the challenges and complexity of ensuring a mandatory code. Many other countries have tried it without much success," Frydenberg told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We think we can be world leading."