"Notwithstanding this reduction in engagement with news content,the past two years have seen an increase in people engaging on our services and increased revenues,"the submission said.

Rejecting concerns about a bargaining imbalance,the company argued it had a healthy commercial rivalry with media outlets.

Advertising revenue for media outlets has collapsed since the advent of the internet and much of the spending has gone to Facebook and Google,which emerged as the main targets of theACCC's landmark digital platforms inquiry.

Facebook said the singling out of the two US companies was"discriminatory and will inevitably give an unfair advantage to Facebook's competitors in the technology sector,including rivals from countries that propagate different and undesirable visions for the internet".

The company said it was not"healthy or justifiable to require one or a few private companies to subsidise the news industry in unsustainable ways".

ACCC chair Rod Sims has said payments from digital giants to media outlets would focus on the indirect value Facebook and Google gain from having news content rather than the"really,really small benefit" of the advertising dollars they gain.

Mr Sims said the social benefits of journalism would be"front and centre of what we will be discussing over the coming couple of months".

Nine,owner of this masthead,has nominated $600 million as the amount Facebook and Google should pay into a fund every year to be distributed to media companies.

Facebook recorded double-digit growth in Australian advertising revenue last year,taking in $674 million.Google recorded $4.3 billion.