The New Zealand government will soon introduce a law requiring big tech companies like Google and Meta to pay local news media for content shared on the former’s platforms.
The New Zealand Minister of Broadcasting, Willie Jackson said in a statement that the legislation will be similar to laws in Australia and Canada.
The Australian government had in 2021, introduced a law that gave the government power to make internet companies negotiate content supply deals with media outlets. This law is said to have largely worked in Australia.
Canada, on its part, had in 2017 hosted a policy think-tank to rescue Canada’s dwindling news media industry. The think-tank had touted the possibility of establishing charges on news aggregators and foreign content producers such as Facebook, Google, Netflix and Canada’s National Newswatch to subsidize made-in-Canada content.
By April this year, the country announced a proposed legislation that would compel platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate with news publishers and pay them for using their content. Through its “Online News Act,” big tech companies would pay Canadian press houses for permitting connections to news content on their platforms.
Meanwhile New Zealand says its news media; particularly small regional and community newspapers, are struggling to remain financially viable as more advertising budgets focus on online platforms. “It is critical that those benefiting from their news content actually pay for it,” Willie Jackson added. The new legislation will go to a vote in parliament where the governing Labour Party’s majority is expected to pass it.
