The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology has welcomed the introduction of legislation, forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news, as globally significant response to the growing power of Big Tech.

The News Media Bargaining Code, to be tabled by the Morrison Government this week, will force the platforms to compensate for the premium journalistic content that powers their social network.

Critically, the government has included SBS and ABC in the framework, which would see an independent ruling of the most reasonable offer if an agreement cannot be reached.

Centre for Responsible Technology director, Peter Lewis, said the laws would give media organisations a fighting chance at building a viable business model, in the face of the market domination of Google and Facebook.

The Australian public has endorsed moves by the Morrison Government to pass legislation requiring Google and Facebook to pay media companies for the news that drives their social networks.

The proposed ACCC Media Code seeks to regulate big tech platforms such as Facebook and Google, and help ensure a viable future for Australian media. The media bargaining code will force big tech platforms to pay for the news that helps drive their platforms.

The Australian Government should develop a National Risk Mitigation Strategy to deal with our over-reliance on Google and Facebook, according to a new report for the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology.

In the wake of threats by Google and Facebook to scale back or close services in Australia should the Government proceed with plans to charge them for news content, the new report from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology ‘Tech-Xit: Can Australia survive without Google and Facebook?’ identifies serious risks to Australian businesses, government services and consumers if services were withdrawn.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology has made a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding its draft news bargaining code, with close of submissions today.

With the incidence of workplace monitoring increasing during the pandemic lockdown, new research shows that workers should be compensated for the secondary use of data gathered in the course of their employment.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology have made a submission to a NSW inquiry into the future of work, arguing that information gathered through workplace monitoring and surveillance should be treated as a work output and covered by workplace laws and regulations.

An open letter today urges global tech giant Google to stop the scare tactics and negotiate a fair agreement with media companies to share advertising revenue in return for the journalism content they currently use for free.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsibility Technology has today published an Open Letter to Google, responding to Google’s Open Letter to Australians that the company posted earlier this week.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology has today endorsed a global statement from citizen and consumers groups, warning of the negative consequences of Google’s proposed takeover of Fitbit.

Consumer and citizen groups have significant concerns that Google’s proposed takeover of wearables manufacturer Fitbit would be a game-changer not only for how people interact with the online world but also for digital and related health markets. Regulators around the world – in particular those concerned with antitrust compliance and data privacy – must therefore give it their utmost attention. This will be a test case for how regulators address the immense power the tech giants exert over the digital economy and their ability to expand their ecosystems unchecked.

A new report by The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology has identified coordinated networks of Pro-Trump and QAnon social media clusters at the centre of coordinated efforts to disseminate disinformation about COVID-19, particularly the conspiracy theory that China engineered the virus as a bioweapon.

The theory that COVID-19 was engineered by China has been embraced by the US President and elements of his administration.

An alliance of digital rights groups has urged the Morrison Government to fill in obvious gaps in the development of the tracing technology to give it its best chance of winning public trust.

Today, the Morrison Government released the COVID-Safe tracing app asking all Australians to download the technology which is designed to inform them of every person a user has been in contact with.