The ACCC has released a draft mandatory code for news media bargaining with digital platforms. The draft legislation and explanatory materials can be found here on the ACCC website and interested parties can provide comments on the draft code until 5pm 28th August.
The code includes minimum standards for:
- give explanations of the types of data collected by the digital platform service and how they are being utilised;
- notify news businesses in relation to changes of their algorithms likely to affect their news business;
- notify news businesses in relation to changes of their algorithms designed to effect the ranking and display of paywalled content;
- notify news businesses in relation to changes to their display of news content;
- notify news businesses in relation to changes to their display of advertising which relates to covered news content;
- provide news businesses tools to moderate user comments on their covered news content; and
- develop a proposal to recognise original news
The code outlines a process for negotiations between news publishers and digital platforms, just Facebook and Google currently, either individually or collectively with an arbitration process through ACMA if the organisations cannot come to a commercial agreement.
Media organisations covered by the code need to apply to ACMA to be registered and meet the following criteria:
- Revenue $150,000 per annum last financial years or 3 out of 5 of the last financial years
- Content relate predominantly to ‘core news content’ (more details in the explanatory materials);
- operate predominantly in Australia for the dominant purpose of serving Australian audiences;
- are subject to appropriate professional journalistic standards set out by an Australian professional body for media or an equivalent set of standards
