Australia passes law forcing Google and Facebook to pay news publications

Regulation such as this undermines my faith in governments. Regulation should be written based on principles that our society is built upon. If a regulation is going against those principles then there has to be an extremely good reason. Australia has not demonstrated this.

I don't know how to feel about Australia. On the one hand, they're a well off developed country. On the other hand, Australia has this new Media Bargaining Code, general media censorship of video games and movies, and they have the Access and Assistance law.

This new law will likely cement Google and Facebook's influence. It ties the fate of news media to American tech giants.

After a tumultous month that saw Facebook pull news from its platform in protest, Australia's government agrees to make the News Media Bargaining Code law.

Isn't Australia Rupert Murdoch's turf? It'd be interesting to know if his organisation's been lobbying for this.