SYDNEY: Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Australian lawmakers last week to discuss rules that would make Internet giants pay news outlets for content but failed to persuade them to change policy, the country鈥檚 Treasurer said on Sunday.
Zuckerberg 鈥渞eached out to talk about the code and the impact on Facebook鈥� and a constructive discussion followed last week between the social media billionaire, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and communications minister Paul Fletcher.
鈥淣o, Mark Zuckerberg didn鈥檛 convince me to back down if that鈥檚 what you鈥檙e asking,鈥� Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp, without giving further details of the meeting.
A Facebook spokeswoman in Australia said the company鈥檚 executives regularly meet with government stakeholders on a range of topics.
鈥淲e鈥檙e actively engaging with the Australian government with the goal of landing on a workable framework to support Australia鈥檚 news ecosystem,鈥� she said.
Australia intends to introduce a law that would force Facebook, the world鈥檚 largest social media platform, and Internet search giant Google Inc. to negotiate payments to media companies whose content drives traffic to their websites. If the parties cannot agree on payments, a government-appointed arbitrator will set the fees for them.
Facebook and Google oppose the 鈥淣ews Media Bargaining Code鈥� and have mounted public campaigns against it. Google has threatened to withdraw its search engine from Australia while Facebook has warned it would stop Australians sharing news content on its site if the laws go ahead.
At a Senate inquiry into the planned law this month, local heads of both companies outlined their opposition to the plans, which would be among the toughest in the world in dealing with the financial impact of global Internet companies on domestic media, which have been hit by shrinking advertising revenue.
鈥淲e鈥檙e told that if we go ahead with this, we鈥檙e going to break the Internet,鈥� Frydenberg said on the ABC.
鈥淲hat I do know is that media businesses should be paid for content.鈥�