* Australia’s Senate votes for amendments
* Some politicians concerned changes bad for smallerpublishers(Writes through, adds Rod Sims quotes)
By Byron Kaye and Colin Packham
CANBERRA, Feb 24 (Reuters) – The architect of Australia’slaws forcing Google and Facebook to pay media companiesfor content claimed victory on Wednesday though critics saidlast-minute changes to appease Facebook favoured Big Tech oversmaller news outlets.
After tense negotiations prompted Facebook to cut off newsin the country last week, Australia offered a host of technicalconcessions and the social media giant said it would restorenews as the revamped bill looked set to become law this week.
Even though Facebook said its concerns had been met andopposition lawmakers warned that smaller media players may beoverlooked, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ChairRod Sims said the bargaining power imbalance had been righted.
“The changes the government’s done are things that eitherdon’t matter much or are just to clarify things that, at leastin Facebook’s mind, were unclear,” Sims, who helped draft theoriginal laws, told Reuters.
“Whatever they say, they need news. It keeps people on theirplatform longer. They make more money,” he said.
The endorsement from Australia’s top antitrust regulatorwill bolster the government’s argument that its hardlineapproach worked and may offer encouragement to countries such asCanada and Britain which have said they plan similar laws.
Other countries have introduced legislation forcingso-called Big Tech players to negotiate with media companies forlicencing fees for links that draw traffic, and advertisingrevenue, to their platforms.
However, Australia will be the first country where agovernment arbitrator effectively sets the rates tech giantswill have to pay if negotiations with media companies fail.
The last-minute changes include an extra two-month mediationperiod between any failed talks and state intervention and givethe government discretion to release Facebook from the processif it proves it has made a “significant contribution to thesustainability of the Australian news industry”.
Facebook’s vice president of global news partnerships,Campbell Brown, said in a blogpost that the changes confirmedthe U.S. company could decide which news, if any, appeared onits platform and that it could avoid forced arbitration.
But Sims said Facebook was always free to stop offering news- and had also been free to cut deals to avoid intervention.
“This isn’t a must-carry regime,” he said. “We never saidwe’re forcing Facebook to keep showing news.”
SMALL MEDIA, BIG CONCERNS
While the Senate backed the changes before sending theamended bill back to the lower house, where it was expected topass soon, opposition lawmakers and smaller media firms warnedthat giving the government power to spare tech giants itsinvolvement could leave niche outlets without compensation.
“The big (media) players could successfully negotiate withFacebook or Google. The minister then doesn’t designate them,and all the little players miss out,” independent senator RexPatrick, who opposed the amended legislation, told Reuters.
Lee O’Connor, owner and editor of regional newspaper TheCoonamble Times, said the changes appeared to weaken safeguardsfor smaller players.
“It’s the vagueness of the language that’s the main concern,and the minister’s discretion is part of that,” O’Connor said.
Antitrust regulator Sims dismissed the concerns.
“If Google and Facebook don’t do deals with even the smallerplayers, my view is they’ll get designated (as subject tointervention),” he said.
If Google and Facebook did deals with all Australia’s majoroutlets, which account for up to 90% of the country’s mediacontent, “why the hell would they muck it all up and not do theother 10%? It makes no sense,” Sims said.
DEAL DELUGE
After threatening to withdraw its search engine fromAustralia over the laws, Alphabet’s Google insteadstruck deals with most large Australian publishers, including aglobal arrangement with News Corp.
Television broadcaster and newspaper publisher Seven WestMedia became the first media company to announce aFacebook deal, saying late on Tuesday it had signed a letter ofintent to reach a content supply agreement within 60 days.
Rival Nine Entertainment Co said on Wednesday itwas now in talks with Facebook.
“We’re still obviously proceeding with negotiations,” NineCEO Hugh Marks told analysts at a company briefing. “It isreally positive for our business and positive particularly forthe publishing business.”
(Reporting by Colin Packham and Byron Kaye; Writing by JonathanBarrett; Editing by Jane Wardell and David Clarke)
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