https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/australia-passes-law-to-force-facebook-and-google-to-pay-for-news/ > The Parliament of Australia has passed a final version of legislation designed to force Google and Facebook to pay to link to news articles. The passage of the News Media Bargaining Code marks the end of a contentious months-long negotiation between the Australian government and the two technology giants—which are singled out in the code. > Google and Facebook have long argued that they shouldn't have to pay a dime to link to news articles, since the links send valuable traffic to news sites. Over the last decade, Google has successfully beaten back efforts to undermine the principle of free linking.