Now Google, Facebook may be forced to pay newspapers & other media outlets for their stories
The Daily Mail has reported that the new laws that are being drawn up by the UK Government may require tech giants such as Google and Facebook to pay newspapers and other media outlets for using their stories.
Under the plans, which are modeled on a system that has been introduced in Australia, the platforms will be encouraged to negotiate payment deals with news organizations. If the negotiations fail, an independent arbitrator would set a fair price, the report said.
The new regime will be regulated by the Digital Markets Unit (DMU), the digital watchdog that was set up within the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to rein in the power of the tech platforms, the report said.
The move, being driven by UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, comes amid growing concerns that the tech companies are dominating online advertising, to the detriment of consumers and businesses.
The unit will also investigate the algorithms used by search engines such as Google, which many news organizations believe are manipulated to disproportionately direct search inquiries towards Left-leaning news organizations, and filter how people read and access news, to the detriment of quality, paid-for journalism, Daily Mail reported.
A source in the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport said that the planned regime was ‘pro-competition‘ and ‘supports the sustainability of the press’. The source said that the new regime will be an important vehicle to tackle the imbalance of power between the largest platforms and publishers.
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.
The source added the plans would also ‘help to redress the imbalance of bargaining power in determining fair payment for content’, which by ‘opening up the online advertising market to competition could also see longer-term benefits for publishers’, and that legislation would be introduced as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Google and Facebook took about four-fifths of the £14 billion spent on digital advertising in the UK in 2019, while national and local newspapers took less than four percent. Google charges between 30 and 40 percent more for search advertising on desktop and mobile devices than Bing, its closest rival.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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