CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia will introduce specific legislation to force Google and Facebook Alphabet to pay publishers and broadcasters for content next week, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Friday.
Australia is on track to become the first country that Facebook and Google have to pay for news content, legislation that is being closely monitored around the world.
“Parliament will now consider the bill from the week beginning 15 February 2021,” Frydenberg said in an e-mail statement.
With bipartisan support, the legislation – which Google says is “inoperable” and will force it to withdraw from the country altogether – could become law this month.
The acceleration of the bill came when an assembly committee examining the proposals recommended any changes.
Representatives for Google and Facebook did not immediately comment when Reuters contacted them.
U.S. research and social media giants have pressured Australia to soften the legislation, with senior officials from both companies holding talks with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Frydenberg.
Last week Google launched a platform in Australia offering paid news, hitting its own content contracts with publishers in an effort to show that the proposed legislation is unnecessary.
Last month Reuters announced it had signed a contract with Google to become the first global news provider to the Google News Showcase. Reuters is owned by news and information provider Thomson Reuters Corp.
Google and the lobbying of French publishers in January agreed to a copyright framework for the tech company to pay news publishers for online content, the first for Europe.
Reciting with Colin Packham; Edited by Stephen Coates