SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft on Thursday lobbied for other countries to follow Australia’s lead in demanding news pay for stories published online, a move against Facebook and Google.
Microsoft last week offered to fill the gap if competitor Google continues to threaten to shut down search engine in Australia over the plan.
Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a statement that the company fully supports proposed legislation in Australia that would force Google and Facebook to compensate the media for their journalism.
“This created an unusual split within the technology sector, and we heard from people asking if Microsoft would support a similar proposal in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and other countries,” Smith said in a blog post.
“The short answer is yes.”
Facebook and Google have both threatened to ban major services in Australia if the rules, now before parliament, become law as written.
The situation raises the question of whether US President Joe Biden will back away from a previous complaint he made about the proposal in Australia.
“As the United States observes the events of Jan. 6, it’s time to extend the opening,” Smith said, referring to a deadly attack on a U.S. Capitol building with a lump. of Trump supporters out to turn election results around.
“The final question is what values we want the tech and independent journalism sector to serve.”
Smith argued that internet platforms that did not compensate news organizations should now step up to revive independent journalism that “goes to the heart of our democratic freedom.”
“The United States should not oppose an Australian creative proposal that strengthens democracy by calling on tech companies to support free press,” Smith said.
“It should be copied instead.”
The proposed law in Australia would regulate relations between financially distressed traditional media outlets and the giants who dominate the internet and capture a significant portion of advertising revenue. .
Microsoft Bing search engine accounts for less than 5 percent of the market in Australia, and from 15 to 20 percent of the market in the United States, according to the tech giant based in Washington State.
“With a reasonable expectation of a share of usage, we are confident that we can build the service that Australians want and need,” said Smith.
“And unlike Google, if we can grow, we are willing to sign up for the duties of the new law, including revenue sharing as suggested by news organizations.”
Under the proposed News Bargaining Code, Google and Facebook were required to negotiate payments to individual news organizations for the use of the content on the platforms.
Australia’s largest media company, Rupert Murdoch’s Corp. News. and Nine Entertainment, have stated that they believe the payments should be in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
If agreement cannot be reached on the amount of payments, the matter would be settled in a so-called “final offer” where each party proposes a compensation amount and the arbitrator chooses one or the other. other.
Google and Facebook, backed by the U.S. government and major internet architects, have said the scheme would severely weaken their business models and the true workings of the internet.
Both Facebook and Google have made sure they are willing to pay publishers for news through licensing agreements and commercial negotiations, and the two have signed multi-million dollar deals with news organizations around the world. the world.
Google has stated that the bargaining code should focus on enabling such negotiations, but rejected the idea of a mandatory “final offer” arrangement.