Google and Facebook are “too close” to deals with major Australian media to pay for the news, a senior government official said on Monday, as tech giants struggle to avoid historic regulation, according to AFP .
Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg said conversations with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have made “great progress” in resolving an impasse that is being closely watched around the world, the agency said. News. Australia is about to adopt legislation that would force digital companies to pay for news content, something that would set a global precedent and, according to Facebook and Google, would ruin the functioning of the internet.
Companies have partially threatened withdraw services of the country if the rules become law, triggering a war of words with government officials in Canberra. But that disagreement seemed to subside on Monday, with Frydenberg telling Australian public broadcaster ABC that negotiations with the companies “made great progress over the weekend”.
Seven West Media has become the largest Australian news media company to strike a deal with Google to pay for journalism. Google and the online, print and online TV broadcaster announced their partnership the day before Parliament considered bills that would force the digital giant and Facebook to pay for Australian news.
The announcement also follows weekend discussions between Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.