... whether a country's media institutions can ask Facebook and Google to pay.
They can ask --- and Google/Facebook can refuse --- by de-listing these "media institutions" from search results.
Sound fair?
But this is not what is happening here. Australia is making Google and Facebook a mafia style offer that they can't refuse.
The only way to avoid paying is by leaving the country altogether. This is where it becomes a "free trade" issue.
What they are proposing is essentially a tariff --- a unique, special, unavoidable and highly targeted tax on these particular US companies just to legally operate in the country.
All this aside, what is really happening is Murdoch wants a cut of their profits without having to compete for it.
They can ask --- and Google/Facebook can refuse --- by de-listing these "media institutions" from search results.
Sound fair?
But this is not what is happening here. Australia is making Google and Facebook a mafia style offer that they can't refuse.
The only way to avoid paying is by leaving the country altogether. This is where it becomes a "free trade" issue.
What they are proposing is essentially a tariff --- a unique, special, unavoidable and highly targeted tax on these particular US companies just to legally operate in the country.
All this aside, what is really happening is Murdoch wants a cut of their profits without having to compete for it.