One and a half years ago, the Australian parliament adopted legislation creating the News Media Bargaining Code, a revolutionary measure aimed at protecting news publishers from the dominance of a few big online platforms. Now, as the JCPA is making progress in Congress, it is a good time to evaluate the success of Australia’s Code.
Today the lead sponsors of the of the bipartisan Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA) announced progress on this critical bill for local news. Senate text was released and listed on the agenda for Senate Judiciary Committee markup in September.
An updated report on the prevalence of news deserts found that the crisis is worsening, particularly in smaller towns.
Meta is allegedly reconsidering its commitment to news, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that Meta platform Facebook’s relationships with some news publishers, as part of its dedicated News section, are due to expire this year and Meta has not yet indicated that it plans to renew them.
On May 26, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority announced they were launching an investigation into Google’s advertising technology practices to determine if the company was engaging in anticompetitive behavior.
On March 11, the European Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched parallel probes into an agreement between Meta and Google regarding online advertising services.
