#109 Google Isn't Feeling Lucky🎧

<em>This newsletter is really a public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: </em><strong><em>how do I think about a particular public policy problem/solution?</em></strong><br/><br/><em>PS: If you enjoy listening instead of reading, we have this edition available as an audio narration on all podcasting platforms courtesy the good folks at </em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ad-auris.com/"><em>Ad-Auris</em></a><em>. If you have any feedback, please send it to us.</em><br/><br/>- <em>RSJ</em><br/><br/>Google and the Australian government are on a warpath. There is a proposed new law - the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-media-bargaining-code">News Media Bargaining Code</a> - that forces Google and Facebook to pay media publishers for links to the news on their sites. While other countries have tried to regulate and make Google and Facebook pay for the content they freely use from news sites, this law is a global first.<br/><br/>The Code<br/><br/>Here’s a brief summary of the Code from the Australian government press release:<br/><br/>The Code will support a diverse and sustainable Australian news media sector, including Australia’s public broadcasters, by:<br/><br/>encouraging the parties to undertake commercial negotiations outside the Code;<br/><br/>enabling digital platforms to publish standard offers, which provides smaller news media businesses with an efficient pathway to finalising agreements with digital platforms;<br/><br/>establishing a negotiation framework under the Code that allows both parties to bargain in good faith and reach binding agreements;<br/><br/>ensuring that an independent arbiter is able to determine the level of remuneration that should be paid under a fair and balanced