Australia's ground-breaking law forcing platforms like Google and Facebook to pay local publishers for news faces an unlikely test case: a website that experts say uses fake journalist profiles has won regulatory backing for its bid to be paid.
Australia’s regulator in charge of enforcing the law, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, last month added "News Cop" — an almost-unknown site without a physical address — to the public register of companies who can negotiate licensing deals with the parents of Facebook and Google under the government system.
The move by the ACMA to clear the site through an initial vetting process intended to support local news by giving the Australian government the power to shape deals with Facebook and Google raises questions about how the still-contentious law will be implemented, several legal experts said.