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By popular* request, a short #tljr on the draft ACCC news media and digital platforms law.
*request by one person: https://twitter.com/owenhollands/status/1289004802685329408
*request by one person: https://twitter.com/owenhollands/status/1289004802685329408
a) Draft legislation is here: https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-media-bargaining-code/draft-legislation
b) I Am Not A Lawyer
#tljr
b) I Am Not A Lawyer
#tljr
A fair summary of the broader context by @ashabeeeee is here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-and-facebook-to-bargain-with-aussie-news-outlets-for-fair-payment-terms/ #tljr
The bits that stuck out to me as the most interesting were:
s 52M(e)
s 52S
s 52W
s 52Y(6)
but I'll summarise the main ideas first. #tljr
s 52M(e)
s 52S
s 52W
s 52Y(6)
but I'll summarise the main ideas first. #tljr
Short version: some Australian news orgs are salty that their marketing execs utterly failed to comprehend that online ads were going to kill their classifieds business for about 15 years. #tljr
Their strategic missteps over a quite astonishing length of time are apparently Google and Facebook's fault because realestate dot com dot au, carsales, and eBay exist.
#tljr
#tljr
Because Facebook and Google (henceforth FandG) are unpopular at the moment (for a bunch of legitimate, but honestly I think orthogonal, reasons) AusGov has decided FandG have to subsidise news orgs in a way the government don't have to call a tax. #tljr
FandG don't want to, and the news orgs have no direct leverage, so negotiations went fairly predictably. The news orgs whinged to the government to give them special treatment, and because Australia is run by the Game of Mates, that's what's now happening. #tljr
AusGov is now forcing FandG to negotiate with news orgs on what the news orgs think are better terms than they'd get under standard market forces, but existing anti-competitive remedies aren't being used because reasons. #tljr
On to the fun wrinkles in the proposed legislation. #tljr
s 52M is about sharing surveillance data FandG collect about people who read news on FandG. The news orgs want access to all of it. #tljr
Right now they only get some, so s 52M forces FandG to tell news orgs what data they *could* get and how they might go about getting it. #tljr
Why news orgs want to spy on their readers more is a question that some people interested in investigating and reporting on issues might like to look into, but where would we find such people? A mystery for the ages. #tljr
There's a bunch of stuff about giving advance warning of changes to The Algorithm which is going to be hilarious. #tljr
