Inspired by a new and groundbreaking Australian law, Indonesian authorities are assessing a draft bill that could compel tech giants to negotiate with media firms for fairer revenues.
Chairman of Indonesia’s Cyber Media Association (AMSI) Wenseslaus Manggut stated that the aim of the tech bill was to ensure fairer revenues for outlets that produce core news and “good journalism”. The Chairman was greatly involved in the drafting of the bill.
Under the bill, an agency will be used to negotiate deals between media firms and tech companies. Aside from this, the bill also requires big tech firms such as Facebook and Google to do more to filter content for hoaxes.
“Under the current ecosystem, clickbait is more profitable,” Mr Wenseslaus said.
“It’s hard to keep the integrity of journalism in this ecosystem.”
The necessity of the bill came about after seeing that algorithms of big tech companies can significantly impact income for digital news media. These algorithms determine how prominently an article appears in a Google search or on a Facebook news feed.
As of the moment, the draft is yet to go to parliament.
Since March, the Australian law has required Facebook and Google to negotiate with local media outlets for content that drives traffic and advertising to their websites. However, this has caused many small publishers to struggle.
Australian National University’s media lecturer Ross Tapsell said the bill was advantageous to bigger industry players with political connections compared to small publishers.
“Ultimately the concern is the smaller, independent media companies – whose mission is public interest journalism – may not benefit from this arrangement,” he said.
According to Wavemaker Indonesia’s Managing Director Amir Suherlan, over half of Indonesia’s digital advertising revenues go to Facebook and Google.
The two tech giants have not immediately responded to requests for comment on the bill.
Usman Kansong from Indonesia’s Communications Ministry said the bill will provide better revenues for “quality” media organisations. However, it is still unclear if the bill would be a standalone legislation or incorporated into existing law.
with AAP
Eliza Sayon is an experienced writer who specialises in corporate and government communications. She is the content producer for Public Spectrum, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian public sector.
