the Social network Facebook categorically rejects calls to share advertising revenues with local news organizations, claiming that technology companies should not take on the burden of the support of the media.
Australian Commission on competition and consumers (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission; ACCC) was asked to create a mandatory code of conduct for technology companies in response to the reduction in the advertising industry during a pandemic coronavirus.
the Government has made it clear that he wants the technology company was paying local media companies for use of their content.
part of the proposals of the Australian regulator seeks to require specifically Facebook and Google to pay for news links on their platforms, which will contribute to the increase in revenues of media companies.
In his address to the ACCC on Monday, representatives of Facebook said that there was “healthy, competitive rivalry” between the social networks and publishers of news, The Guardian reports.
At the same time, in Facebook noted that can remove content from its platform without any major impact on the company’s business, as the news make up only a “very small part” of what users see in their news feed.
“Despite the decline in the level of engagement in news content over the last two years was observed […] the revenue growth, which testifies to the fact that news content is largely replaced with a different content for our users and that the news does not bring significant long-term value for our business,” writes the company.
Regulator puts up for discussion the question of whether media companies to collectively boycott such platforms as Facebook, if the American tech giant will not agree to provide publishers and media more support.
Facebook saidsilt that private technology companies are not responsible for the investment of money in the media industry. “You can’t expect two private companies, Facebook and Google, will be responsible for supporting public benefit and solution to the problems facing the Australian media industry,” writes Facebook.
While this particular case is in Australia, the problem is more global. The power of social media and their impact on the business model of news publishers increased, as the company can determine how traffic is routed on news sites.