Australia passed a bill requiring platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay local publishers for the use of news content, but this policy ran into problems. Experts say that some websites use fake journalist status to win the support of regulators, and this website also requires payment.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Australian Communications and Media Authority, hereinafter referred to as ACMA) has developed a list of companies that can negotiate authorization issues with Facebook and Google’s parent companies through the government system. Last month, ACMA added a new company called News Cop. Website, this website is unfamiliar and doesn’t even have a physical address. ACMA found the problem and cleared the website during the initial review.
News Cop’s articles are reprinted from other news providers. It has no physical address and only one mailbox. It was registered as a company on February 21, 2021, which was registered 3 days before the passage of the Australian Content Act.
Richard Holden, professor of economics at the University of New South Wales, believes that registered companies tell us which news providers have the right to ask large technology companies to pay. News Cop is also on the list, but it violates the law. The original intention of the bill; goal of the bill is to support the interests of public news, and the News Cop incident proved that the process rules are easily manipulated.
The ACMA spokesperson said that since the News Cop was authorized, ACMA has gone to the company to learn about its registered news business and asked how the news content was produced, but ACMA did not provide details of the inquiry. The Australian bill has attracted attention from some countries, and countries such as France and Canada are also considering allowing large technology companies to pay for news content.