Facebook’s deal with Australia

Regulators are closely watching Australia’s efforts to compel the world’s biggest digital platforms to pay publishers for news.

Canada is weighing a similar tax on links, while France has used copyright laws to charge Google for including news snippets in search results.

Lawmakers in the U.S. are also evaluating how to stem the loss of media funding and the dominance of Facebook and Google in the digital ad market.

“The bottom line is that Facebook and Google need to give way more money to news outlets,” Columbia University’s Anya Schiffrin told The Hill. “It doesn’t really matter whether it’s through copyright like France is doing or paying for links like Australia is doing.”