By The Editorial Board, Financial Times
How should regulators tackle the concentration of power by Big Tech? It has become one of the most pressing issues in the wake of the pandemic as the dominance of America’s large technology groups has soared.
Australia’s government thinks it has part of the answer. Under a draft code of conduct proposed by Canberra, the digital platforms Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for content created by traditional media companies, or face the prospect of hefty fines. The proposal is a response to the deepening crisis in the country’s domestic newspaper industry, which has been forced to slash costs and, in some cases, close titles, in recent weeks.
