AoIR 2021

Australia’s Big Gamble: The News Media Bargaining Code and the Responses from Google and Facebook

Francesco Bailo (University of Technology Sydney), James Meese (RMIT University), Edward Hurcombe (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology), Tama Leaver (Curtin University), Axel Bruns (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology), Dan Angus (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology), Belinda Barnet (Swinburne University of Technology)

• 12-16 Oct. 2021 – panel presented at the Association of Internet Researchers conference, online
• a longer video of the paper “Facebook’s Australian News Ban: Threat, Impact, and Aftermath” by Axel Bruns and Dan Angus is also available
• full panel details, including abstracts for all papers in the panel, were published in Selected Papers of Internet Research

Video of the Panel

Panel Abstract

Introduction: Content Platforms, News Media, and Government Regulation

As news and media engagement preferences have shifted to online content platforms, so has the advertising market; this has fundamentally undermined the business model for conventional print journalism. More recently, a similar process has affected online news outlets as well: as a growing number of users discover news reports via search or social media rather than from visiting news sites directly, and as increasingly detailed previews of linked articles on such platforms decrease the likelihood that these users will click through to the full news article, advertisers prefer to run their ads on Google, Facebook, and other platforms rather than on the pages of the news sites themselves. According to recent analysis by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), online advertising now accounts for some 50% of total Australian advertising expenditure, and Google and Facebook alone capture nearly one third of that market (ACCC, 2019: 18).

Rather than acknowledging that, as Lotz (2021) has put it, “the business model is broken”, news media representatives have increasingly sought to redress this substantial shift in the flow of advertising revenues by lobbying for regulatory change. Already, for instance, Google has struck a controversial deal with a group of French news publishers to pay them US$76 million over three years (Rosemain, 2021), potentially preempting action under new European Union legislation designed to bring content platforms and news media to the negotiating table; while a court case about the copyright implications of Google news previews in Germany ended inconclusively (Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2020). Given the substantial financial, legal, and communicative resources available to major transnational content platforms such as Google and Facebook, however, such initiatives remain risky even if they have the backing of national governments, and may be tied up in the courts for many years.

The Australian News Media Bargaining Code

Responding rapidly to extraordinary developments in early 2021, this panel examines the background, development, implementation, and consequences of the latest Australian regulatory intervention in the engagement between content platforms and domestic media organisations: the News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC). In response to the final report of the ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry (2019), the Australian federal government envisioned the NMBC as “a mandatory code of conduct to address bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms, specifically Google and Facebook” (ACCC, 2021), and in April 2020 directed the ACCC to develop a draft code; following a period of consultation that saw substantial public relations campaigning from Google, Facebook, and other content platforms to question the aims and effectiveness of the proposed code (e.g. fig. 1), the NMBC bill was sent to federal Parliament in December 2020.

Fig. 1: Warning message displayed to Australian users of Google Search as part of Google’s campaign against the News Media Bargaining Code (Zhou, 2020)

Google and Facebook both threatened to remove their services from Australia, or remove Australian news content from their platforms, if the NMBC passed in its original form (Visentin & Samios, 2021; Easton, 2020). Such threats were regarded by some of the NMBC’s proponents as blatant attempts at “bullying” the Australian government to water down the Code (Lewis qtd. in New Daily, 2021), and in pushing ahead with the debate of the NMBC bill in the Australian Parliament the government essentially sought to call the platforms’ bluff – yet in the morning of 18 February 2021, Facebook followed through on its threats and both removed all content from the Facebook pages of Australian news outlets (and from those of other actors mistakenly classified as providing news), and banned any domestic or international users from publishing or accessing any posts that contained links to Australian news sites (ABC News, 2021). The ban remained in force until 26 February, when urgent negotiations between Facebook and the Australian federal government produced a preliminary solution to the crisis. The Code finally became law on 2 March 2021.

This panel reviews these turbulent developments. Paper 1 opens the discussion by assessing the underlying patterns of news engagement on Facebook in Australia, thereby reviewing the evidence that was used to prompt the development of the News Media Bargaining Code. Paper 2 reviews the threats and tactics used by Google and Facebook to fight the NMBC, and the conditions which led both companies to claim they won their battle with the Australian Government. Paper 3 analyses the implementation, impact, and aftermath of the week-long Facebook news ban. Paper 4, finally, examines the implementation and impact of the News Media Bargaining Code to date, and assesses whether Google and Facebook have engaged in good faith in negotiations with Australia’s media organisations. In combination, the four papers on this panel present a comprehensive and multifaceted picture of the News Media Bargaining Code, its context, and implications.

References

ABC News. (2021). Facebook Just Restricted Access to News in Australia: Here's What That Means for You. ABC News, 18 Feb. 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/facebook-news-ban-what-just-happened-post-zuckerberg/13166710

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). (2019). Digital Platforms Inquiry: Final Report. Canberra: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Digital%20platforms%20inquiry%20-%20final%20report.pdf

———. (2021). News Media Bargaining Code: Project Overview. https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-media-bargaining-code

Easton, W. (2020). An Update about Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia. Facebook Newsroom, 31 Aug. 2020. https://about.fb.com/news/2020/08/changes-to-facebooks-services-in-australia/

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. (2020). Google bleibt Prozess gegen VG Media erspart. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 June 2020. https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/google-bleibt-prozess-gegen-vg-media-erspart-16800970.html

Lotz, A. (2021). The Old News Business Model Is Broken: Making Google and Facebook Pay Won’t Save Journalism. The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2021. https://theconversation.com/the-old-news-business-model-is-broken-making-google-and-facebook-pay-wont-save-journalism-150357

New Daily, The. (2021). Google This: Tech Giant Threatens to Remove Search Engine from Australia over Media Code. The New Daily, 22 Jan. 2021. https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/2021/01/22/google-threats/

Rosemain, M., (2021). Exclusive: Google's $76 Million Deal with French Publishers Leaves Many Outlets Infuriated. Reuters, 13 Feb. 2021. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-france-copyright-exclusive-idUSKBN2AC27N

Visentin, L., & Samios, Z. (2021). ‘It’s a Reality’: Google Threatens to Stop Search in Australia Due to Media Code. Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Jan. 2021. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/google-threatens-to-disable-search-in-australia-if-media-code-becomes-law-20210122-p56w2h.html

Zhou, N. (2020). Google's Open Letter to Australians about News Code Contains 'Misinformation', ACCC Says. The Guardian, 17 Aug. 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/aug/17/google-open-letter-australia-news-media-bargaining-code-free-services-risk-contains-misinformation-accc-says