New Zealand, like Australia, wants to have agreements between the technology giants and the media. The government approached Google and Facebook about this last week.
Media Minister Kris Faafoi said he is thinking of getting a regulation passed requiring tech giants to pay news media for news content they distribute through their platforms. In this way, the minister wants to support the media sector, which is in great difficulty partly due to the corona crisis.
Faafoi prefers to negotiate agreements between the press groups and the American technology companies rather than creating a binding law. “I met representatives of Facebook and Google last week,” said the minister on Wednesday before a committee in parliament. “I am convinced that the commercial negotiations taking place between the traditional media and digital platforms will also start in New Zealand, and I encourage them.”
Last week, the Australian parliament passed a law requiring digital platforms to pay the media for distributing news. The media are accused of raising a lot of money through advertisements without paying the media itself.
In Australia, Facebook and Google eventually entered into agreements with media companies before the law was passed to circumvent the stricter new rules. Facebook blocked news items on its platforms for a while in February due to the new law’s announcement.
Faafoi said the New Zealand government’s rules would depend on how the negotiations between the platforms and the media progress.
