Google agrees to pay for News Corp journalism as Facebook blocks news in Australia over new law

Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google has agreed to pay for News Corp’s (NASDAQ:NWS) journalism while Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has blocked news in Australia.

The publishing giant said Google News will provide “significant payments” to host its stories on the Showcase platform over the next three years.

READ: Facebook and Google to be forced to share ad revenues with news companies under new Australian rules

News Corp owns huge titles such as The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch in the US, The Times and The Sunday Times in the UK and Sky News in Australia.

The agreement also includes the development of a subscription platform, sharing of ad revenue via Google’s ad technology services, audio journalism and investments in video journalism by YouTube, which is owned by the search engine.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Facebook users in Australia can’t view or share news, sparking concern over public access to information.

The pages of global news sites were unavailable on Thursday morning, the BBC reported.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on a Facebook post that these actions “were as arrogant as they were disappointing” and the government will “not be intimidated”.

“These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behaviour of BigTech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them. They may be changing the world, but that doesn’t mean they run it,” he wrote.

The Australian government is working on a new law to make tech giants pay for the content reposted from news organisations.

News Corp rose 3% to US$23.98, Alphabet was flat at US$2,123.34 and Facebook shed 1% to US$271.61 in premarket trading.

Story by ProactiveInvestors