Sovereign governments decide news media laws, not tech companies in the US: Paul Fletcher

At a time when Big Tech monopoly has been throwing a spanner in the works of news media houses world over, the world applauded Australian goverment's moxie for bringing out the News Media Bargaining Code in 2020. The Code became a gold standard for the world as a tool to keep tech giants in line and to create an equitable environment for the dissemination of digital news.

A person who was instrumental in bringing the Code to fruition was Paul Fletcher, the former Australian Minister for Communications, along with Australian PM Scott Morrison.

Fletcher, who is in India to attend the DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference 2023 as a speaker, spoke to e4m about his experience in developing the code, his admiration for India's digital revolution and DNPA's role in taking on Big Tech.

He explained how the Australian government dealt with resistance from Google and Facebook when the draft of the code was first shared with them. "There was a bit of turbulence along the way. Google at one point threatened to withdraw Google Search services in Australia. In response to that, the PM and I met with the global experts of Microsoft who said they will be interested in expanding BING (Microsoft's search engine) in Australia. We didn't hear much more of the threat," he quipped.

Facebook, in retaliation also shut down pages of vital community services like Australian police, ambulances and the Red Cross, a move that turned out to be a PR mistake for the tech company.

"In the face of that, we held firm and there was a strong political leadership from Josh Frydenberg (Former Treasurer of Australia) and the legislation passed parliament. I am pleased to say that both Google and Facebook have since negotiated commercial deals with news media businesses nearly 20 (times) from Google and 13 from Meta," he stated.

Fletcher reiterated that his visit to India has two purposes: first to share his experience in bringing the code to fruition and second, to learn more about the extraordinary success of Indian tech companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro. He also had some words of praise for India's tech sector, which he describes as "world-leading."

He also expressed his admiration for India's tech revolution: "To deliver services to citizens who only five or ten years ago may not even have had mobile services or a bank account, what's being achieved here is extraordinary."

Fletcher attributes the success to the Indian government, the country's IT sector and the telecom operators who stoked the digital revolution in the country.
Calling the big tech monopoly in news a "competition policy issue", Fletcher highlighted the injustice in Google and Facebook's actions. "They have got extraordinary success in digital advertising. In so doing, they are competing with news media businesses. The content they are using to successfully attract eyeballs includes content by news media businesses."

He emphasised that every country needs to make its own laws to deal with the inequality of news dissemination. "It's a very important principle for governments of sovereign countries to make, but a corollary of that is that it should be a decision made by a sovereign government, not tech businesses in the US. In a liberal democracy, you must have a diverse media."

Speaking about DNPA's role, Fletcher noted that it will help make a case to define the issue and to advocate public policy solutions. "There will be no doubt that the government will be interested in the views of DNPA like other stakeholders."

"When global companies come to a country to operate, they need to comply with the laws of the country," he signed off.