The Albanese Government says it intends to establish a news bargaining incentive to ensure big digital platforms such as Facebook contribute to the sustainability of news media in Australia.

As a hyperlocal public interest publisher Yanchep News Online has had some issues in the past with Facebook (owned by Meta) especially during Covid-19 when its algorithm couldn’t seem to work out that information attributed to the WA Department of Health had in fact been provided to Yanchep News Online by the department.

This resulted in Facebook stopping people from accessing stories on the Yanchep News Online Facebook page that included the latest Covid exposure sites relevant to Yanchep News Online readers.

Then just like other Australian news publishers Yanchep News Online was affected by Facebook’s Australian news ban, which started on February 2021.

The ban meant the number of people Yanchep News Online reached fell by 83 per cent and post engagement fell by 95 per cent.

But this publisher has stayed on Facebook because it is the social media platform most of Yanchep News Online’s almost 5000 social media followers prefer.

When announcing the government’s plan Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said a strong and diverse news sector was vital for a healthy democracy.

“However, the rapid growth of digital platforms has disrupted revenues to Australia’s media sector, which threatens the viability of public interest journalism,’’ they said.

“The News Media Bargaining Code was introduced in 2021 (by the then Morrison government) to incentivise digital platforms to enter into commercial deals with news publishers.

“The code acknowledged that large digital platforms are unavoidable trading partners for Australian news media businesses in reaching audiences online and sought to address the imbalance of bargaining power between digital platforms and news media publishers.

“However, the code has limitations.

“It allows platforms to avoid their obligations by removing news.’’

They said the government was acting to address this, by establishing a news bargaining incentive to encourage digital platforms to enter into or renew commercial deals with news publishers.

“Australia does not intend to raise revenue from this policy,’’ they said.

“The bargaining incentive includes a charge and an offset mechanism.

“Platforms that choose not to enter or renew commercial agreements with news publishers will pay the charge.

“Platforms with these agreements will, however, be able to offset their liability.

“The incentive will apply to large digital platforms operating significant social media or search services irrespective of whether or not they carry news.”

They said the government would consult stakeholders on the final design of the scheme and a public consultation paper was expected to be released in early 2025.

In Big tech firms like Meta forced to pay for news, under Albanese government’s ‘news bargaining incentive’ charge, The Conversation, December 12 University of Sydney media and communications senior research associate Rob Nicholls said under the proposed new system Meta would have to ask itself: do we still want to do business in Australia or not?

“The vast amount of advertising revenue they get in Australia suggests that failing to comply would be cutting off their nose to spite their face,’’ he wrote.

“Rather than pay the charge, they would exit and forgo all that ad revenue.

“So my expectation is they would rather just pay the charge.”

Anyway, Yanchep News Online will keep posting public interest journalism to its social media accounts while ever that is what readers want (and the social media giants allow).

If Facebook responds to the Albanese Government’s proposed news bargaining incentive or tweaks the algorithm so that news is given less prominence in your feed you can subscribe to the Yanchep News Online newsletter or visit https://www.yanchepnewsonline.com.au/

Meanwhile, Yanchep News Online won’t be leaving X (formerly Twitter) at this stage despite sympathising somewhat with those who have recently left the social media platform.

For a hyperlocal public interest publisher with limited resources and personnel being able to quickly access Department of Fire and Emergency Services alerts and WA Police posts on a platform like X is an important part of how this publisher stays aware of breaking news about emergencies such as bushfires and motor vehicles crashes.

So even though there is no denying X has changed since it was bought by @elonmusk Yanchep News Online is staying for now.

While not severing all ties with X on November 14 @CityofWanneroo tweeted that its X account was longer in use.

“Please head to our channels on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to keep up to date,’’ the city posted.

Prior to this tweet the last time the City of Wanneroo posted on X was in relation to the 2023 Mariginiup bushfire, which was reported on November 22 and in just four days burned through 1900ha and destroyed 18 homes.

This article appeared on Yanchep News Online on 16 December 2024.