Facebook and Google Approach Deal on Australian Media Pay

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The Australian government is nearing an agreement with tech companies Facebook and Google on paying local media companies for news.

Google previously threatened to shut down the search engine in Australia if the company is forced to pay for news by the new legislation. Facebook planned to stop Australians from sharing news on its platform.

Australian Minister Frydenberg spoke in recent days with CEO Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google, and the parties would now be close to an agreement.

Google wants to compensate media companies through the new product News Showcase. On Monday, the first major Australian news organization announced it had reached an agreement with the search engine. Google already has a deal with 121 media companies in France to offer news.

A Google spokesperson said the company is in talks with Australian publishers large and small. In contrast, a Facebook spokesperson said the company is negotiating to “ close deals that reflect the commercial value of news on the platform. ”