LONDON: Newlaws being proposed by the UK government could force tech giants, such as Google and Facebook, to start paying newspapers for hosting their stories. Modeled on a law passed in Australia last year, the plans would see tech giants forced to negotiate payment deals with news organizations in order to display their content online. If the negotiations fail, an independent arbitrator would set a fair price. The proposed law comes amid growing concern and criticism that tech giants are dominating online advertising in the UK. The law will be regulated by the UK’s Digital Markets Unit, the online watchdog of the Competition and Markets Authority. The regulator will be given powers to act “swiftly and effectively” if it finds that a media platform had not offered “fair and reasonable remuneration for its use of publisher content. Algorithms used by search engines that filter how people read and access news will also be investigated by the unit amid criticism from publishers that they work to the detriment of quality, paid-for journalism. “The measures would give publishers greater transparency over the algorithms that drive traffic and revenue, more control over the presentation and branding of their content, as well as greater access to data on how users interact with their content,” a spokesperson for the government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said. Facebook has argued that it already helps to support UK publishers by paying tens of millions of pounds to national and local outlets to be part of Facebook News. The law in Australia generated heavy opposition from Google and Facebook. The latter initially responded by blocking all news content to Australians, but reversed the decision after negotiations with the government.