The bosses of Nine,News Corp and Seven West Media have called for a potential ban on Facebook if parent company Meta fails to comply with local laws and values.
The company is against a bill to stop journalism job losses as publishers struggle to make money,while it cashes in on advertising in search results.
The former federal treasurer,now the Goldman Sachs Australia chairman,said brokering a deal with Meta and Google involved one-on-one conversations with the companies’ chiefs.
Meta’s decision to pull almost $70 million in annual revenue for news organisations puts reputable journalism at risk.
Australian Community Media boss Antony Catalano warns of job losses in regional publishing.
The Morrison government established the tools to force the giant media platforms to pay fairly for news on their sites. Now the Albanese government must use those tools.
Former competition regulator Allan Fels says the federal government should use tax law and content rules to maximise pressure on the social media giant to pay for Australian news content.
Senior ministers have accused Meta of “a dereliction of its commitment to the sustainability of Australian news media”.
Meta is taking on the Canadian government over its new Online News Act,a copycat policy of Australia’s world-first News Media Bargaining Code.
The social media giant,which owns Facebook,Instagram and WhatsApp,is aghast at a mooted change to allow users to opt out of targeted advertising online.
Facebook’s owner has again threatened it will remove news from the social media platform if the federal government does not revoke or amend the current media bargaining laws.