Facebook's Zuckerberg reached out to Australia lawmakers more than new media rules

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Australian lawmakers last week to discuss rules that would make internet giants pay for news outlets for content but failed to persuade them to improve policy, the country's Treasurer said on Sunday (Jan 31).

Zuckerberg "reached out to talk about the code and the effect on Facebook" and a constructive debate followed last week between your sociable media billionaire, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and communications minister Paul Fletcher.

"Zero, Mark Zuckerberg didn't convince me to back down in the event that's what you're asking," Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp, without giving even more information on the meeting.

A Facebook spokeswoman in Australia said the company's executives regularly talk with federal government stakeholders on a variety of topics.

"We're actively engaging with the Australian government with the purpose of landing on a workable framework to support Australia's news ecosystem," she said.

Australia intends to introduce a good law that would drive Facebook, the world's most significant social media program, and internet search giant Google to negotiate payments to media companies whose content material drives traffic to their websites. If the parties cannot acknowledge payments, a government-appointed arbitrator will place the fees for them.

 

Facebook and Google oppose the "PRESS Bargaining Code" and have mounted public promotions against it. Google offers threatened to withdraw its search engine from Australia while Facebook provides warned it could stop Australians sharing media content on its blog if the laws go ahead.

At a Senate inquiry into the planned law this month, local heads of equally companies outlined their opposition to the ideas, which would be among the toughest on the globe in coping with the financial impact of global net companies on domestic media, which were hit by shrinking advertising earnings.

"We're informed that if we just do it with this, we're going to break the internet," Frydenberg stated on the ABC.

"What I do know is certainly that media businesses ought to be payed for content."