Benzinga - New Zealand plans to introduce a law that will ensure companies such as Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) pay for news that they carry on their feeds.
What Happened: New Zealand’s Minister of Broadcasting Willie Jackson said Sunday that the legislation will be modeled on similar laws in Australia and Canada and “act as an incentive for the digital platforms to reach high-quality voluntary deals with local news outlets.”
“The UK and the EU are looking to introduce similar legislation,” said the minister.
“It’s not fair that the big digital platforms like Google and Meta get to host and share local news for free. It costs to produce the news and it’s only fair they pay,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the reduction in the income of local media companies has led to a “significant decline in the number of journalists in New Zealand.”
Why It Matters: The minister called the new law a “pragmatic approach” and consistent with how other countries are working to ensure local media gets a “fair price” for the news they create.
Last week, the Australian government said that Meta and Google-parent Alphabet inked over 30 deals with media outlets after the nation’s News Media Bargaining Code came into effect in March 2021.
The law's rollout was contentious after Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook (NASDAQ:META) briefly wiped clean news feeds from Australian media in February 2021.
It was reported earlier that Facebook aims to migrate its investments from news to products that would help it compete better with TikTok.
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