Australia set to enact bill making Facebook, Google pay for news

The proposal to require Facebook and other big tech firms to pay for news, has passed its last major parliamentary hurdle in Australia, and is now expected to become law.

Australia's Senate has passed the proposal that would see big tech companies pay for news, or be subject to binding arbitration if they cannot reach a deal with publishers. The upper chamber voted to accept the bill with the amendments agreed on following Facebook's banning of news pages in protest.According to the Wall Street Journal, the bill will now return to the Australian parliament's lower chamber, the House of Representatives. This body previously passed the unamended version, so it is expected to agree to this edition.

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