In July 2020, the Australian government revealed its plan to introduce a new law that would see the tech giants Facebook and Google pay news outlets for the privilege of using their content. This proposal signified a lifejacket for local news organisations, which have been sinking under the pressure of the tech giants’ market monopoly.
According to the Australian Commission Chief Rod Sims, the code of conduct was introduced to amend the “imbalance in bargaining power, the market failure that comes from that, and underpayment for news having a detrimental effect on Australian society”. What started as a concept for a voluntarily code of practice three years ago developed into a mandatory law against tech companies, to balance the growing power of their online platforms.
For years, tech corporations have been establishing a monopoly over the media market. Google, for example, holds about 95% of the search engine market share in Australia and maintains an even greater monopoly in other areas across the world. The shift in consumers’ reading habits, coupled with advertisers being lured to digital platforms as a more lucrative and targeted method of reaching their audience, has forced many local newspapers to cease trading or shift to a digital-only format. While news organisations’ websites do receive some traffic from social media, this does not translate into sufficient financial revenue. Traditional news organisations are faced with the choice of either continuing to produce high-quality journalism and fight for survival, or succumb to the pressure of churning out high-volume, low-quality content in the hopes of attracting enough traffic to their websites.
Are the Big Tech companies playing fair?
The Australian government’s concerns over tech companies’ rapid expansion and hold of the market are not unsubstantiated. Google’s exponential growth over the past two decades has turned the search engine into the unequivocal market leader. Amidst reports that the tech giant has begun to favour its own services at the expense of others, several government antitrust bodies from across the world have launched investigations into Google’s competitive practices. A US antitrust investigation into Google revealed that the organisation was promoting its own services by placing them at the top of search results, while using its algorithms to demote its rivals. Similar revelations have been made by governmental bodies worldwide. In Turkey, regulators have fined Google $25.5 million for allegedly abusing its market dominance in online searches; while in France, Google has already had to negotiate itself out of a deal which would have seen the company paying publishers under an order issued by the European Union Copyright Directive.
Accusations of foul play and monopolising the market have not escaped Facebook either. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission sued Facebook for illegally maintaining a social media networking monopoly through the acquisition of up-and-coming rival companies. Facebook’s monopoly goes even further: a Pew Research Center survey from 2019 revealed that 52% of US adults get their news from Facebook. However, 62% of the respondents also stated that social media has “too much control” over the mix of news displayed on the platform.[1] These findings are supported by reports that Facebook advertisers can completely rewrite the displayed headline for news stories, leading to concerns over the amplification of disinformation on the platform.
Australian code of conduct: the tech giants’ response and implications for the future
In February 2021, the Australian House of Representatives approved the code of conduct compelling internet companies to pay news organisations. This caused a chain reaction among tech corporations, in particular Facebook and Google, who were suddenly faced with a choice: agree to the terms of the code of conduct and set a precedent for the rest of the world, or attempt to derail further regulation attempts by preventing Australian users from accessing their services in some capacity.
Google’s initial response to the code of conduct was to threaten to entirely remove its search engine from Australia. However, following negotiations, Google announced it will sign seven Australian media companies to its News Showcase service and pay them to host their content. Australia’s federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg stated that if Google makes enough deals with enough media organisations, it could become exempt from the code of conduct. However, it is interesting to note that Mr Frydenberg has his own connections to the media: his father is the owner of Seven West Media, one of Australia’s leading media companies. Such connections beg the question of who the real winner of this deal will be: the local news organisations who have been struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, or the media conglomerates looking to further expand their influence?
Australia’s code of conduct, which has been deemed as “reasonably attempted” by other tech companies including Microsoft, elicited a controversial response from Facebook. Instead of complying with the rules, Facebook blocked Australians from accessing and sharing news via its services, leading to international uproar. However, less than a week later, Facebook announced it would reverse the ban and restore news content to Australian users. It appears that, following Facebook’s initial announcement, the Australian government has negotiated with the social media company and introduced four further amendments to the code of conduct, including one that states the government may not apply the code to Facebook if the company can demonstrate a “significant contribution” to local journalism. Following the negotiations, Facebook has committed to invest at least $1 billion in partnerships with news organisations over the next three years.
Although it has now been diluted somewhat, Australia’s code of conduct presents a path for news publishers to gain back some control over its distribution channels and secure a revenue stream from internet companies. The monopoly that the tech giants have established over advertising, and their influence on audiences’ reading habits, have created considerable challenges for the survival of traditional media organisations – no longer respected for their quality of journalism, but reliant instead on “click-bait” headlines and the number of eyeballs they can attract to their websites. By forcing tech companies to recognise the true value of quality journalism, we may be able to save the industry that represents one of the key pillars of our democratic society.
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We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
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Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
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We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to webrequests@digitalis.com