After Facebook’s news flex, Australia passes bargaining code for platforms and publishers

A week after Facebook grabbed eyeballs globally by blocking news publishers and turning off news-sharing on its platform in Australia,

the country’s parliament has approved legislation that makes it

mandatory for platform giants like Facebook and Google to negotiate to

remunerate local news publishers for their content, to take account of

how journalism is shared on their platforms.The News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code was developed in conjunction with

Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with the aim of

addressing the power imbalance that exists between digital platforms and

news businesses.