Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeTechnologyLatest Technology NewsWhy Tech Giants are Boycotting Australian Media Outlets?

Why Tech Giants are Boycotting Australian Media Outlets?

The Australian government in 2020, presented a draft news law before the tech giants. The draft code inferred that the companies would have to pay for the news-based content. However, the social media groups went against the law as they retaliated to reflect their contradiction with the government’s decision. 

Why Australian Govt Wants Tech Giants To Pay For News Feeds? 

There are several reasons related to the current Australian media and tech companies’ heated situation. Most significantly, the government presented the argument that the news outlets require financial support and stability to keep working progressively. Also, the channels have been providing content for a long while and haven’t been rewarded rightfully by the tech groups. The technology-based organizations that successfully run the biggest social media sites and search engines, have been dominating the news outlets. Hence, the government took an initiative in the support of media channels in order for them to obtain sufficient finance from the tech firms.  

Why Companies Are Being Reluctant Towards Paying?  

One of the Tech Giants, Facebook presented with an argument against the law. According to WhatsApp’s parent company, the social media platform has been undoubtedly helping the news publishers earn a great amount of revenue. The advertisement alone served massively in providing the means to the news outlets to enjoy huge wages. According to Facebook, the total sum that Australian publishers earned in the year 2020 through using the site was approximately A$407m.  

Besides, as per William Easton, the local managing director, the company did not ask for any of the content provided by the publishers. How come the company is being a target under the tag Facebook controversy due to the law penalizing it. 

How Did Facebook And Google Retaliate?

Both Facebook and Google have been facing crucial situations since the beginning of 2020. Previously, the U.S Federal Trade Commission demanded answers from the tech giants for allegedly tampering with the security of the public’s data. Now, the Australian government is putting a hurdle in the way of what can be a smooth operation otherwise. However, the companies pushed back after the authorities expected them to act in accordance with the presented law. 

Recently, Facebook somehow boycotted all the news content since the Australians can’t seem to see any bulletin or broadcasted posts on the platform. Also, it blocked the users from posting or even glancing at any sort of news on the platform. Due to such a reaction, the public of Australia presumably suffered as they couldn’t acquire any information about the surroundings through their regular media and news sources. 

Reportedly, Google previously mentioned that it would remove the search engine from Australia for the law that the authorities are trying to impose on it. However, it agreed later to pay the News Corporation run by Rupert Murdoch.  

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