Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, December 5 (Xinhua)-- New Zealand will follow the example of Australia and Canada by introducing new laws to impose "reasonable fees" on tech giants who use local news content, estimated at between $30 million and $50 million, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Under the new law, tech giants Google and Meta are required to pay for sharing local news content reported by New Zealand media on their own platforms. New Zealand Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson said the new legislation would follow similar laws in Australia and Canada, and Britain and the European Union were considering similar measures.

"it is unfair for large digital platforms like Google and Meta to host and share local news for free. News production comes at a cost, and it is only fair if they pay for it," he said.

Kevin Chen, global policy director at Meta, opposes the law, arguing that Internet platforms are providing "free marketing" to these local media. "this will reduce the credibility of the media and make it more difficult for traditional media to transition to a digital model." Kevin said.

The Canadian government said in April that it would enact a bill that would force technology companies to pay local news publishers for content, CTOnews.com reported. The move is said to be to help troubled media, which have lost much of their online advertising revenue to American giants.

For similar reasons, Jackson also said that letting Meta and Google pay for news would ensure that digital platforms reached "high-quality voluntary agreements" with local news media.

In addition, Australia passed a law in 2021 requiring Google and Meta to reach an agreement to compensate the media for news content on their platforms, or to allow government-appointed arbitrators to decide how much they should pay.

However, the law, which came into effect in Australia in March 2021, once caused Facebook to shut down the news. The Australian government also recently pointed out that its policy of charging local news fees from large technology companies has proved to be "successful".

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