Meta to withdraw from its deal to pay for Australian news content

Melbourne Law School Chair of Intellectual Property Professor Andrew Christie discusses the next steps for news organisations and the government following Meta's shock announcement on Friday. Meta informed Australian executives on Friday of its decision not to renew deals with publishers signed in 2021 under the world-first News Media Bargaining Code introduced by the Coalition government. The deals were struck with major Australian news outlets, including Sky News Australia, News Corp, Seven, Nine and The Guardian. Mr Christie said one option following the announcement is for nobody to do anything "in which case we're left with whatever the result Meta saying it's going to achieve". "Another option, however, and one that seems more likely to occur is the government has to decide whether it's going to exercise the powers that it gave itself a few years ago for exactly this situation," he told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood. "Now, those powers are essentially to declare that Meta now is regulated by the News Media Bargaining Code."