relative to the value we receive from them,”
Facebook regional managing director William
Easton said.
“As a result of these changes, we can now work
to further our investment in public interest
journalism and restore news on Facebook for
Australians in the coming days, ” Easton added.
Google, meanwhile, has been signing up
Australia’s largest media companies in content-
licensing deals through its News Showcase. The
platform says it has deals with more than 50
Australian titles and more than 500 publishers
globally using the model, which was launched
in October.
Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute’s
Center for Responsible Technology, a think tank,
said in a statement that the “amendments keep
the integrity of the media code intact.”
However, others took a more skeptical stance.
Jeff Jarvis, a journalism expert from the City
University of New York, said media tycoon
Rupert Murdoch, who owns most of Australia’s
major newspapers through his U.S-based News
Corp., is the biggest winner while smaller titles
and new media startups would suffer most.
Jarvis said Murdoch’s media empire was the
driving force behind the Australian legislation,
which he noted includes a requirement for media
companies to earn at least 150,000 Australian
dollars ($119,000) in revenue to be eligible.
“So a startup which has no revenue has no real
recourse,” Jarvis said, adding that even if Facebook
and Google open payment talks with smaller
companies, “clearly a smaller player has less clout
than a bigger player, than a News Corp.”