What began as a binary question over whether the government should “designate” social media behemoth Meta under Australia’s contentious news media bargaining code has evolved into a much broader debate on whether the Morrison-era legislation is still workable.
An interim report, partly focused on the federal law that has generated around $200 million annually for the news industry, was released last night by the Senate committee on social media.
It made 11 recommendations. None of them mention ‘designation’, the mechanism that enables the government to force Meta (and theoretically other platforms including Google) to enter into binding arbitration with publishers or face steep fines if the process fails.
The report comes after the competition watchdog and Treasury provided advice to the government over whether Meta should be designated. It also comes in the wake of Meta walking away from deals worth around $70 million annually to the news industry.
