‘Fair go’: Australia to make Facebook, Google pay for news in world first

Google protests, says the regulation ignores ‘billions of clicks’ that it sends to Australian news publishers each year.

Australia will force U.S. tech giants Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay Australian media outlets for news content in a landmark move to protect independent journalism that will be watched around the world.Australia will become the first country to require Facebook and Google to pay for news content provided by media companies under a royalty-style system that will become law this year, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.

“It’s about a fair go for Australian news media businesses. It’s about ensuring that we have increased competition, increased consumer protection, and a sustainable media landscape,” Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne.

“Nothing less than the future of the Australian media landscape is at stake.”

The move comes as the tech giants fend off calls around the world for greater regulation, and a day after Google and Facebook took a battering for alleged abuse of market power from U.S. lawmakers in a congressional hearing.

Following an inquiry into the state of the media market and the power of the U.S. platforms, the Australian government late last year told Facebook and Google to negotiate a voluntary deal with media companies to use their content.

 

Google to invest $1 bn to build new offices in New York; hire 7,000 workers

The announcement comes weeks after both Amazon and Apple made known their individual expansion projects in the Big Apple.

Google revealed that it would invest $1 billion in the construction of new offices in New York, an announcement that comes weeks after both Amazon and Apple made known their individual expansion projects in the Big Apple.

In a posting on the company’s blog, Google Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said the name of the new campus, which will occupy 158,000 sq metres (1.7 million sq feet), will be Google Hudson Square and will be located between Soho and Greenwich Village neighbourhoods of Manhattan, EFE news reported on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google’s director of public policy and government relations, William Floyd, noted that his company’s talk about increasing its payroll in New York over the next 10 years by another 7,000 employees is a “conservative estimate.”

“New York City continues to be a great source of diverse, world-class talent – that’s what brought Google to the city in 2000 and that’s what keeps us here,” Porat said.

Google, with headquarters in Mountain View, California, joins two other tech giants from the West Coast, Amazon and Apple, which recently announced plans to further expand their presence in New York.

Business Standard