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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, June sixth Anthony Albanezi and Peter Dutton have

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Speaker 1: put on a rare show of unity. They've slammed the

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Speaker 1: Greens in Parliament, saying they're fueling tension and division over

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Speaker 1: conflict in the Middle East. The PM says pro Palestinian

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Speaker 1: protesters targeting electorate offices like his in Sydney's Marrickville are

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Speaker 1: undermining their cause and preventing others from participating in democracy.

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Speaker 1: Economic growth is all but ground to a halt, slumping

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Speaker 1: to its slowest pace in three decades outside the COVID pandemic.

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Speaker 1: Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Wednesday high interest rates are

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Speaker 1: to blame for the slowdown and he doesn't expect things

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Speaker 1: to improve before the end of the year. Those stories

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Speaker 1: alive right now at The Australian dot Com. The boss

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Speaker 1: of News Corp Australia, Michael Miller, wants the federal government

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Speaker 1: to pass so called social license laws that would expose

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Speaker 1: social media executives to criminal penalties if they breach Australian law. Miller,

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Speaker 1: whose company publishes Mastheads, from the Herald Sun to Vogue Australia,

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Speaker 1: The Australian and the front says if the tech giants

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Speaker 1: don't comply, they should be expelled from the Australian market.

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Speaker 2: That's today's story.

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Speaker 3: My name is Francis Hogan.

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Speaker 4: I used to work at Facebook.

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Speaker 1: In October twenty twenty one, the worst nightmare of executives

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Speaker 1: at the world's most powerful social media platform, Meta came true.

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Speaker 1: A whistleblower, Francis Hogan went public in the most dramatic

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Speaker 1: possible way. This is Hagen addressing the United States Senate.

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Speaker 3: I joined Facebook because I think Facebook has the potential

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Speaker 3: to bring out the best inness. But I'm here today

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Speaker 3: because I believe Facebook's products home children, stoke division and

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Speaker 3: weaken our democracy. The company's leadership knows how to make

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Speaker 3: Facebook and Instagram saver, but won't make the necessary changes

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Speaker 3: because they have put their astronomical profits before people.

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Speaker 1: METS founder Mark Zuckerberg said Hagen's claim it puts profit

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Speaker 1: before people was untrue. On Wednesday, at the National Press

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Speaker 1: Club in Canberra, News Corp Australasia boss Michael Miller took

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Speaker 1: up the fight.

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Speaker 5: These tech giants, especially the social media networks such as Meta,

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Speaker 5: TikTok and x operate outside our legal system.

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Speaker 6: It's time for them to play by our rules.

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Speaker 5: They have deep pockets, they are highly litigious, but that

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Speaker 5: is no reason why they should not be subject to

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Speaker 5: Australian law, and we should seek to enforce Australian law.

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Speaker 5: The words social license describe the permission companies have to

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Speaker 5: operate within a society. The tech monopolies should also be

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Speaker 5: made to pay a license. This social license would be

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Speaker 5: a package of laws and requirements the tech monopolies would

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Speaker 5: need to meet if they want access to Australian consumers.

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Speaker 1: Miller recommended a suite of new legislation designed to keep

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Speaker 1: the tech platforms accountable for the content and ideas they amplify.

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Speaker 1: They include making it easier for users to contact the

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Speaker 1: platforms directly, breaking up the digital advertising monopoly, honoring the

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Speaker 1: news media Bargaining Code, and importantly.

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Speaker 5: Penalties that incorporate criminal sanctions for companies and their executives

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Speaker 5: that agree to the license that then break the rules,

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Speaker 5: and the power to ultimately block access to our country

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Speaker 5: and our people if they refuse to play by our rules.

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Speaker 1: Miller said part of the problem is that fines don't.

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Speaker 5: Work because on social media, bad behavior is good for business.

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Speaker 6: The social media giants.

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Speaker 5: They profit from evil videos, They profit from bullying, They

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Speaker 5: profit from online con artists.

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Speaker 6: They profit from glamorizing eating disorders.

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Speaker 5: In the words of a British father who lost their

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Speaker 5: child to suicide, they monetize misery in metas case, according

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Speaker 5: to a recent report in the UK's Sunday Times magazine,

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Speaker 5: that profit is a staggering one hundred and thirty six

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Speaker 5: million US dollars every single day.

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Speaker 6: The a Triple C has ruled that for.

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Speaker 5: Media companies, Meta is an unav avoidable trading partner.

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Speaker 1: That means the media companies have no choice but to

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Speaker 1: use the social media platforms to get their journalism to Australians.

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Speaker 1: That's because all our habits have changed so much. More

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Speaker 1: and more we live in our social feeds now, instead

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Speaker 1: of tuning into the six pm news or swinging past

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Speaker 1: the news agency to pick up the paper. In order

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Speaker 1: to find out what's going on, news organizations have to

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Speaker 1: post their stories on TikTok or Facebook if they've got

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Speaker 1: any chance of having them noticed by the audience.

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Speaker 5: And in twenty twenty one, Parliament determined that Meta should

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Speaker 5: pay for the news it users.

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Speaker 1: That's the world first news media Bargaining code that was

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Speaker 1: passed by the Australian Parliament after the a Triable C

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Speaker 1: found the big tech platforms were the news media industry's

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Speaker 1: unavoidable trading partners. Essentially be a trible C, which is

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Speaker 1: the Competition watchdog said platforms are profiting from news news

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Speaker 1: content and should pay for it. Facing the thread of

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Speaker 1: the code, both Google and Facebook did deals with Australian publishers.

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Speaker 1: Now as its three year deals expire, Meta is refusing

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Speaker 1: to renew them, saying neither it nor its users are

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Speaker 1: actually interested in news now. Their decision now triggers the

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Speaker 1: possibility of them being designated under the bargaining code and

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Speaker 1: told that despite what it says, it is still using

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Speaker 1: news content and should return to the negotiating table. In Canada,

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Speaker 1: faced with the same demand that it pays for news,

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Speaker 1: METAUP turned news off on Facebook, saying you can't force

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Speaker 1: us to pay for something we no longer carry.

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Speaker 6: We had a deal, they walked away.

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Speaker 5: I believe they had an obligation to renew the agreements

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Speaker 5: and honor our laws. It is intriguing that Meta has

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Speaker 5: no problem turning off the news, but has a big

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Speaker 5: problem turning off teenage fight clubs, the bullying of young women,

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Speaker 5: or scam advertising.

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Speaker 6: We cannot let ourselves be bullied.

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Speaker 5: Meta must be designated under the Media Bargaining Code and

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Speaker 5: challenged to negotiate in good faith.

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Speaker 1: But the problem is who can make them pay.

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Speaker 5: Met has been a frequent target of regulators in the

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Speaker 5: last two years. As of last week, there are at

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Speaker 5: least thirty enforcement actions against Meta around the globe.

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Speaker 6: But when does this money get paid?

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Speaker 5: Their usual pattern is to fight any ruling against them

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Speaker 5: through appeals.

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Speaker 6: In the courts.

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Speaker 5: For years, the tech monopolies love to use the law

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Speaker 5: to protect their right to be above the law.

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Speaker 6: When the threat of.

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Speaker 5: Regulation comes in their direction, the tech monopoly has a playbook.

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Speaker 5: They declare that they want to be regulated, that no

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Speaker 5: solution is ever workable for them. Then they insist that

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Speaker 5: regulation should be harmonized across jurisdictions, and Meta knows that

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Speaker 5: such a global agreement is never going to happen.

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Speaker 1: Miller said the social license he's proposing would put social

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Speaker 1: media executives under exactly the same kinds of rules that

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Speaker 1: apply to every other company.

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Speaker 5: A company may want to come to Australia to mine

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Speaker 5: the mineral of the moment copper. We rightly regard copper

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Speaker 5: as Australian property and if you want to extract it,

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Speaker 5: here are just a few of the things that Australia requires.

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Speaker 5: You will pay a royalty on the copper to access

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Speaker 5: the copper. You will fairly negotiate with the landowners. You

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Speaker 5: will hire Australians and meet all our industrial relations standards, safety.

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Speaker 6: Requirements and awards.

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Speaker 5: You will meet all environmental requirements, and you will pay

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Speaker 5: to fix any damage you cause or face preak. In

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Speaker 5: my view, the tech monopolies are also mining companies, but

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Speaker 5: they don't mind our minerals. They mind our lives.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, How AI fits into this complicated picture. Like

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Speaker 1: the media landscape, the Australian is always evolving. Our subscribers

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Speaker 1: get breaking news alerts and commentary direct to their phones,

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Speaker 1: as well as access to newsletters and special events. Check

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Speaker 1: us out at Vaustralian dot com dot au and we'll

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Speaker 1: be back after this break. In May, News Corps Global

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Speaker 1: boss Robert Thompson announced a landmark agreement with OpenAI, a

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Speaker 1: tech company that owns the generative artificial intelligence platform chat GPT.

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Speaker 1: If AI falls under the broad umbrella of machine learning.

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Speaker 1: That means sophisticated algorithms crawl the Internet and synthesize all

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Speaker 1: the information they can find on a given topic. Then

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Speaker 1: they spit it back out in whatever format. We ask

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Speaker 1: for images, videos, essays and more. In licensing the expert

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Speaker 1: FactCheck journalism produced by news Corps many mast heads around

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Speaker 1: the globe. The hope is that the information served up

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Speaker 1: to users of chat, GPT and others is of the

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Speaker 1: highest quality and accuracy. News Corp Australia CEO Michael Miller

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Speaker 1: was asked about the agreement at the Press Club on Wednesday.

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Speaker 4: Thank you for your spirch Olivia Island from the Sidney

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Speaker 4: Morning Herald the age, miss Miller. A year ago, News

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Speaker 4: Corp was giving warnings about the use of artificial intelligence

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Speaker 4: and its effects on the media, and now you're doing deals.

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Speaker 4: What exactly has changed.

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Speaker 5: Jim DVAI has not been in the vernacular for long.

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Speaker 5: I think changed over the past year is that a

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Speaker 5: lot of those AI companies have learned from the tech

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Speaker 5: platforms to engage with media earlier. And that's what I

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Speaker 5: think all media companies are seeing that they are wanting

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Speaker 5: to have conversations. They see media as being important partners

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Speaker 5: and that media companies should be open to having those conversations.

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Speaker 5: There's no doubt that those AI companies need media companies

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Speaker 5: and that if the partnership is right, then I don't

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Speaker 5: think media companies should be closed minded to working with

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Speaker 5: AI companies either.

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Speaker 1: So you're not going to hear episodes of the Front

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Speaker 1: scripted by chat GPT ever, and this is where the

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Speaker 1: confusion comes from. News Corp, like other publishers, is exploring

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Speaker 1: the use of AI to make journalism more efficient, faster

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Speaker 1: and more accurate. But it's not anywhere near our news

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Speaker 1: or investigative content. It's information like weather, traffic conditions, fuel prices,

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Speaker 1: or based on information that's publicly available and independently verified.

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Speaker 1: I asked the boss of our Data journalism division about

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Speaker 1: this and he said generative AI is not writing stories.

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Speaker 1: It can't be trusted for that. Nothing is published without

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Speaker 1: being carefully checked by an editor, a human.

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Speaker 7: Thank you Dana Daniel from The Camera Times. Again, you've

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Speaker 7: said that it won't be a big deal if MATA

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Speaker 7: leaves Australia and that we can just come up with

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Speaker 7: other social media platforms fill in that space. But Australia

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Speaker 7: is not really a tech superpower. Do you see this

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Speaker 7: as something that government should fund and subsidize an alternative

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Speaker 7: social media industry in Australia.

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Speaker 5: First of all meta leaving the country. The E Safety

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Speaker 5: Commissioner said that there were thirty two million reports of

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Speaker 5: child exploitation online last year. Eighty five percent of those

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Speaker 5: came from the four meta platforms Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and threads.

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Speaker 5: They are by far the worst actor thirty two million.

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Speaker 6: Good riddance.

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Speaker 5: If you don't want to not just sign up to

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Speaker 5: our values, but sign up to our laws, why do we.

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Speaker 7: Want them here so we don't need subsidies, then I'm.

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Speaker 6: A head ask for subsidies.

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Speaker 5: I'm asking for the government to move quickly with a

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Speaker 5: social license that enshrines our way of life, that protects

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Speaker 5: austrained businesses, not just protect a strained business, put just

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Speaker 5: a level playing field. We're not even asking for protection,

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Speaker 5: We're looking for a level playing field. Have them play

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Speaker 5: by our laws and if not, put penalties in place.

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Speaker 5: That's what other businesses have to sign up to. That's

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Speaker 5: what they should sign up to.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the front we'll be back

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Speaker 1: right here tomorrow. In the meantime, join our subscribers at

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Speaker 1: the Australian dot com