The reason behind Center arguing Big Tech must Pay For News, and Why Should Google and Facebook Pay To Host News?

The reason behind Center arguing Big Tech must Pay For News, and Why Should Google and Facebook Pay To Host News?

As other nations seek to build a revenue-sharing bridge between internet corporations like Google and Facebook and digital news publishers, the Indian government intends to require Big Tech to pay publishers for using their information on their own platforms.

In order to implement this shift, the government is considering revising the IT laws, according to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for information technology and electronics. Apurva Chandra, secretary of the Union I&B Ministry, emphasized the significance of digital publishers receiving an equitable portion of the money made by big tech from hosting news content.

According to the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry, huge tech companies ought to split profits with online news producers. Apurva Chandra, secretary of the Union I&B Ministry, said it’s critical that digital publishers receive a fair portion of the money made by big tech from hosting news material, using Australia and Canada as examples.

Australia’s government passed legislation requiring businesses like Facebook and Google to compensate news publishers in order to broadcast their information.
Australia, Canada, France, and the European Union (EU) have already taken the initiative through their legislatures and strengthened their competition commissions to ensure a fair split of revenue among the creators of news content and the aggregators, according to Union I&B Ministry Secretary Apurva Chandra in a message to the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) conference.

According to Chandra, it is essential for the longevity of the media business that perhaps the online media networks of each of these publications, who are the ones who create the unique material, receive a fair share of the revenue from the Big Tech companies, who serve as an integrator of the content generated by many others.

According to Chandra, there have been problems with the financial stability of both the print and digital news industries since the Covid crisis. As the traditional news industry continues to deteriorate, he made the outlandish claim that the future of journalism is now in jeopardy. For this reason, the integrity of journalism and the dissemination of accurate information are at risk in the same measure.

According to Chandra, the conventional news sector has a history of providing for the country. I understand that they have enough checks and balances in place to make sure that accurate and truthful news is reported, and they are an excellent illustration of our stated policy of self-regulation, he said.

The concept behind large tech funding news

Big tech applies to well-known corporations like Facebook and Google. According to The PC Mag, “Big Tech” refers to massive tech firms with enormous impact, like Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. Making Facebook and Google pay for news articles published on their websites is a proposal that seeks to solve the issue of excessive online advertising revenue.

Facebook and Google, whose websites host news stories, receive the majority of internet advertising money. The claim is that although hosting news stories enables Facebook and Google to monetize their sites through advertisements, news publishers do not reap a commensurate share of the rewards.

While this concept has the backing of international news publishers, it has been met with opposition from social media giants like Facebook. In their view, they play no more than a passive intermediary role in the dispersion of media articles, with readers exercising full editorial discretion.

Furthermore, they have attempted to claim that media publishers are benefiting from the site as well, thanks to the availability of a new outlet for their writing and the site’s apparent success in attracting readers via social media and search engines like Facebook and Google. Because of this, Australia wants to make sure that corporations pay publications what they’re worth right off the bat.

The Australian law

According to Australian legislation, in order to host news publishers’ content, Facebook and Google must negotiate to host fees with them. Under the statute, a number of agreements with significant media organizations have been formed.

According to the law, the arbitration will take place if the publisher and companies are unable to agree on a price. The statute served as a model for legislation in other nations, including the United States. The Australian law affected other countries even in the absence of other laws. Irrespective of whether other nations ultimately pass legislation along these lines, Australia’s news code has probably already had an effect outside of its borders.

The Financial Times says that Australia’s law has made the agreement between Google and publishers like News Corp, which includes publications from all over the world, worth a lot more. The Poynter Institute estimates that in its first year, 2022, the law increased media income for Australian outlets by $140 billion.

A balance is necessary

The Guardian pointed out the interdependence of large tech and publishers. Facebook initially forbade all news content on its platform in Australia. However, it quickly changed its mind and started negotiating with media outlets. Facebook may have blinkered, but social media is a two-way street since publishers also need them to distribute their material, drive traffic to their websites, and interact with readers.

According to The Guardian, Companies like Google are the primary means by which nearly all Australians access the Internet. This means that news organizations have no option except to share their updates on these social media channels.” Digital outlets, however, also require news. If no news showed in users’ feeds or search results, Google and Facebook would be much less useful.

According to the 2019 University of Canberra digital news study, platforms are now more than half of Australians get their news. By monetizing these audiences through the sale of advertising in opposition to the attention given to news, the platforms. The publishers consider themselves to be at a disadvantage in this arrangement. Therefore, the demand for such legislation.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma