The government of New Zealand is set to introduce a new law which will require big tech firms to pay local media companies for local news content that appears on their feeds.

The legislation will be modelled on similar laws which have been introduced in Australia and Canada, and would see the content aggregators like Google and Facebook pay local news outlets in New Zealand, minister of broadcasting Willie Jackson said.

The legislation will go to a vote in parliament where it is expected to be passed by the Labour Party’s majority.

Jackson said: "New Zealand news media, particularly small regional and community newspapers, are struggling to remain financially viable as more advertising moves online. It is critical that those benefiting from their news content actually pay for it."

The Canadian government's Bill C-18, introduced in April of this year, requires tech giants to make fair commercial deals with outlets for the news and information that is shared on their platforms. While concerns were raised around net neutrality, the government described it as a move which the government said would be "fundamentally fairer for Canadian news media."

The Australian government, which implemented the world’s first legislation on this matter in February 2021, last week published a report showing that the legislation was a success and that media outlets had signed more than 30 deals that compensate them for having their news appear on Facebook and Google. It concluded that "that the Code has been a success to date,” and suggested that it should be extended to other platforms such as Tiktok and Twitter.

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