Australia claims Google, Facebook close to agreeing to pay for news

Digital giants Google and Facebook were close to agreeing to “significant commercial deals” to pay Australian media for news, claims Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

The Australian Parliament is scheduled to consider the draft laws that would force the digital giants to finance its news media.

A Senate committee last week retained the proposed regulations that the two tech giants deemed as unworkable.

Frydenberg, one of the ministers responsible for the legislation, had discussions with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai and with Australian news media executives.

According to Frydenberg, they have made real progress and expect to see some significant commercial deals, which could benefit the domestic media landscape and financially reward journalists for generating original content.

Frydenberg pointed out that no other country has stepped in as Australia.

Google threatened to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the news media bargaining code was introduced while Facebook plans to block Australians from sharing news if forced to pay for news.

While both companies can afford the cost for the Australian news, they are concerned about the precedent that Australia could establish.