Facebook not taking initiative to follow media law: Australia

Canberra: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair Rod Sims has expressed his concerns over the cooperation of media giant Facebook with regards to the Australian media licensing law that was introduced to ensure large corporations worked out-licensing deals with smaller businesses. As part of the News Media Bargaining Code, the social media giant and Alphabet Inc's Google must negotiate with news outlets for content that drives traffic to their websites or face possible government intervention.

"Google is still negotiating and finalising deals with more news media companies and seems to be approaching this exercise in the right spirit," said Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair Rod Sims in a statement. "We are concerned that Facebook does not currently seem to take the same approach."

Google and Facebook both objected to the Australian regulator's attempts to ensure a fairer playing ground for online services, as many companies were dependent to go through either of these companies to reach their customers. The media had earlier complained that both companies were profiting from ad revenue on online news sites without paying royalty to the media owners which has been addressed under the law.