India may set regulations that will require Big Tech to pay news channels for their content
aceAustralia’s “News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code” obliges Big Tech companies to pay news publishers to display links on their platforms. Implementation of the system is being explored worldwide and India is likely to consider a similar move.
Recently, Minister of State for IT and Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar told the Times of India that the government is considering a law that would require tech companies like Google, Meta, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft and others to sell Indian newspapers and digital news. . publishers a cut of their advertising revenue in exchange for the use of their original material.
He said, “The market power of digital advertising currently controlled by Big Tech companies, which is putting Indian media companies at a disadvantage, is an issue that is being seriously explored in the context of the new legalization and rules.”
However, it should be noted that in addition to Australia, many European countries have also introduced similar legislation that requires such technology companies to freely compensate content producers for the use of their content and promote it in the results.
Meanwhile, in India’s case, the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) and the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which first raised the issue, accusing Google of abuse. it. dominant position in news aggregation to create an unequal playing field for news publishers. MoS Chandrasekhar said news publishers have no power to do business, which should be discussed in the legislature as it is an “important issue”. In addition, it believes that the rule can be enforced through regulatory interventions under the existing amendments to the IT Act.
RAIN SO BIG TECH
Technology companies have expanded, grown richer and become more entrenched in many aspects of modern life as news organizations struggle to adapt to dwindling resources in the digital age. Because of the unfair game, many people question whether Big Tech should pay for the journalism they use.
For years, news organizations have complained about Internet companies using search results content or other features that don’t pay for them because online aggregators like Google and Facebook. It should be noted that technology platforms can help news publishers increase the visibility of their content, but more traffic does not always mean more income. Therefore, it has become a global problem to find and implement effective rules that can resolve the differences in this system.
Australia’s News Media Negotiating Code and the European Union’s digital copyright directive are opening the door for other countries to follow suit and make Big Tech pay for journalism.
As a result, reports from Australia revealed that local media has improved since Big Tech was made to pay for the problem. For example, Google and Facebook paid Australian media companies nearly $200 million last year because of new regulations that benefited local companies. After a conflict between Google and the consumer regulator, Australia became the first country in the world to introduce such rules requiring tech platforms to negotiate payments with local media companies, and since then media companies and Big Tech have agreed to nearly 30 collaborations.