US asks Australia to scrap plan to make social media pay for news

US trade representatives have asked Australia to develop a voluntary code and suspend the proposed laws.

The US government has asked Australia to scrap proposed laws that will make it the first country in the world to force Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay for news sourced from local media outlets. In a submission asking the government to “suspend” the plans, Assistant US Trade Representatives Daniel Bahar and Karl Ehlers, suggested Australia instead “further study the markets, and if appropriate, develop a voluntary code”. Under the proposed legislation, which has broad political support in Australia and is currently before a Senate committee, Google and Facebook will be subject to mandatory price arbitration if a commercial agreement on payments to Australian media cannot be reached.