Australian upper house passes amended bargaining code for media, tech platforms

Canberra [Australia], February 24 : The Australian upper house on Wednesday announced passing of an amended version of the mandatory bargaining code for digital platforms that will make the tech companies share revenue with media businesses.
"The Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2021 has passed the Senate with government amendments," the Australian Senate tweeted.
The country's treasury on Tuesday had presented amendments to the original code, introduced after Facebook removed posts of Australian news outlets and government pages amid the debate with Canberra over the bill.
Earlier, Facebook had stopped blocking access to news in Australia after the amendments were approved.
Facebook and the Australian government's agreement enabling users to share news links on the platform is being closely watched by regulators around the world as a possible model for requiring the social media giant to pay for news content on its site.
According to The Hill, the relationship between the power of tech platforms and the steep decline in news media revenue has become a key issue for lawmakers in the US and abroad, with many proposing changes that would strike at the digital ad market dominance of social media firms.
Facebook last week had blocked user access to news links in Australia in response to legislation making its way through the Australian Senate that would require digital platforms to pay publishers for news content that appears on their sites.