The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has asked Facebook and Google to create a code of conduct that will allow them to pay for the news sources they use. The code to be created is planned to provide data sharing, news ranking and revenue sharing. Discussions have been ongoing for this new arrangement between ACCC officials and technology companies. However, it seems that the coronavirus epidemic affects the advertising revenues, has accelerated the regulation process. Australian officials: We think we will reach an agreement Australian officials, who ask Google and Facebook to pay for the news content they use, think that deals will be made with the companies. Josh Frydenberg, who is responsible for the Australian government’s financial affairs, argues that the payment to news organizations by Facebook and Google is fair. The authorities did not disclose exactly when the implementation would begin. However, the behavioral code draft to be used for the application is requested to be ready by the end of July. Google and Facebook are not seeing similar regulations for the first time. In France, companies were also asked to pay if they use their news content. Google went so far as to remove news previews to oppose editing. This incident in France shows that technology companies have ways to avoid governments’ demand for similar payments. For this reason, comments are made that the code of conduct that forms the basis of the regulation prepared in Australia may not work.
