The federal government is not ruling out requiring tech giant Meta to carry news on its social media platforms as well as pay for it, as Labor considers whether to activate and toughen the still-dormant news media bargaining code.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, told Guardian Australia the government would consider possible changes to its code upon completion of a review into the role the tech platforms play in the news market in Australia.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Treasury are undertaking the review, engaging with traditional news media companies about how the platforms affect the distribution of the news they produce.
Rowland acknowledged calls to strengthen the code included an option to compel designated tech platforms to continue to make news available.
“That would need to be examined in terms of how it fits within the code process,” Rowland said in an interview for Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast. “Our starting point is this code process. We will await the advice from the ACCC and we’ll go from there.”
The news media bargaining code was devised to force tech companies into negotiations with news media organisations and ultimately to pay for the journalistic content they were accessing free of charge and making available to their users.
But the code, which was established by the Morrison government, has never been activated because companies Meta and Google entered into voluntary arrangements with the news organisations. The deals are time limited and details are commercial-in-confidence.
But Meta has indicated it may not renew its agreements when they expire, arguing users are no longer interested in news.
“I don’t want to get ahead of the process, but the government is well aware of these different scenarios,” Rowland said. “And again, whilst the announcement by Meta was extremely disappointing from a public interest journalism perspective, and also from a democratising perspective, given the importance of the fourth estate, it’s one that was not entirely unanticipated.”
Meta’s threat in Australia follows its decision to pull news from its platforms in Canada last year in response to the Canadian government’s move to force it to pay for the news content it was providing there.
“We’ve seen Meta deprioritising even content that it’s deemed to be political in nature as well,” Rowland said of the company’s actions.
Rowland and the assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, held a virtual meeting in March with the minister of Canadian heritage, Pascale St-Onge, to discuss the Canadian experience.
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When the Australian government introduced the news media bargaining code in 2021, Meta protested by removing news from its platforms temporarily, inadvertently also blocking some emergency services and community service announcements – a measure that was reversed within days.
The company’s move to pull news off Canadian platforms last year led to a similar scenario, suggesting that in the intervening years, it had not refined the algorithm it was using to determine what should be blocked.
“We remain committed to the outcome, which is that we have a strong, sustainable public interest journalism-based media in Australia,” Rowland said. “And we’re committed to the code process.”
The government also fears Meta’s threat could spell doom for smaller news organisations, which are heavily reliant on the audiences that social media platforms bring.
Rowland said there had been many inquiries into the sector already.
“It’s time to bring those together and really have a proper basis for supporting news media,” she said.