Social media companies are not creators of news, yet their online platforms carry links to content produced by news and media organizations, driving users to their highly profitable sites. This has led to a long-running debate over whether social media companies should be paying for the privilege of providing such links to their users.
The dispute on Thursday last week took a new twist when the Australian government passed new legislation — the News Media Bargaining Code — that requires Facebook and Google to pay for news content carried on their platforms.