World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said Australia’s plan to force digital giants to pay the media for news content is “impractical” and undermines a “fundamental principle” of the Internet.
Canberra is pursuing pioneering laws that would require Google and Facebook to compensate Australian news organizations or pay millions of dollars in fines.
The aggressive move to check the power of the tech giants has sparked negative reaction from American companies, with Facebook warning that Australians may be prevented from sharing articles in their “News Feed”, while Google has experimented with hiding local news in search.
Berners-Lee, a computer scientist who created the web in 1989, said in a submission to an Australian Senate inquiry that he is “concerned that the code might violate a fundamental principle of the web by requiring payment to link certain online content”.
“The ability to link freely – that is, without limitations on the content of the linked site and without monetary fees – is critical to how the web operates, how it flourished to date and how it will continue to grow in the coming decades,” he wrote.
In the January 18 submission, Berners-Lee said he supports the need for publishers to be “properly rewarded” for their work, but “restrictions on the use of hypertext links are not the correct way to achieve this goal”.
“If that precedent were followed elsewhere, it could make the web impractical around the world,” he wrote.
“Therefore, I respectfully ask the committee to remove this mechanism from the code.”
The US Trade Representative’s Office also urged Australia to abandon its “costly” plan, saying there could be “long-term negative consequences” for consumers and businesses.
The Canberra initiative has been closely watched around the world, as the world media suffers in an increasingly digital economy, where big tech companies overwhelmingly capture advertising revenue.
The planned legislation received wide support from Australian media organizations, many of which were hit hard by a drop in revenue during the coronavirus pandemic.
The digital giants have also made contributions to the investigation, with Facebook calling for a return to the voluntary code of conduct initially discussed by Canberra.
“Facebook remains willing to pay Australian news publishers for the news content made available on Facebook, as long as it is subject to genuine business considerations,” the document said.
Google said that some revisions to the draft proposal improved the law, but called for several other amendments to the rules.
Australia plans to introduce the new rules this year, with the Senate committee set to hold public hearings from Friday.
hr / arb / jah