Australia will force tech giants like Facebook and Google to pay local media for published news, in order to protect independent journalism.

With this move, this site becomes the first to require internet companies to pay media houses for newspaper content, according to a model similar to copyright, and this will be regulated by law this year.

The move came as the giants began to defend themselves against stricter rules around the world and a day after U.S. lawmakers, in a congressional hearing, attacked Google and Facebook for abusing market power. After reviewing the media market and the power of US platforms, in late 2019, the Australian government asked these two companies to negotiate with media houses regarding the use of their content.

However, the negotiations have not borne fruit, so Canberra announces that unless an arbitration agreement is reached within 45 days, the Australian Communications and Media Agency will make legal obligations on behalf of the government. Google says the regulation ignores the "billions of clicks" it sends to the Australian media each year. As they said, this sends a disturbing message to companies and investors that the government would rather intervene than let the market function.