Editorial: Reining in the tech giants

Explosion of platforms like Google, Facebook and Microsoft, has created an uneven playing field as they piggyback on content created by newsrooms.

Hyderabad: At a time when revenues for the media organisations — both print and digital — have been dwindling rapidly, a compelling moral argument is gaining currency across the world that the technology giants must be made to pay for using the news content on their platforms and to share advertising revenues with the local publishers. The explosion of global digital platforms like Google, Facebook and Microsoft, with their all-pervading impact on our lives, has created an uneven playing field as they piggyback on the content originally created by newsrooms without compensating them. And, more importantly, unlike the media companies, the technology giants are insulated from any accountability or responsibility.

After Australia and Canada, New Zealand is the latest to come up with a law, compelling the technology companies to sign agreements with newspapers and media organizations to use their content. It is time India too takes a similar route to create a level playing field. The enormous market power on digital advertising that is currently being exercised by the Big Tech places Indian media companies at a serious disadvantageous position. This needs to be corrected by making appropriate changes in the information technology laws. It is unfair that big digital platforms like Google and Meta get to host and share local news for free. It costs to produce the news and it’s only fair that they pay. The rise of digital advertising has resulted in a new ecosystem that redirects ad revenue to tech companies.

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Replicating the Australian and Canadian models, New Zealand is all set to introduce a law which will require the tech giants to pay media companies in the country for local news content. Australia was the first country to make it mandatory for tech companies to pay for original news content. News publishers around the world believe that Facebook and Google benefit from the news that appears on their feeds, as it draws several users to the platforms. While social media platforms get clicks, engagement and even revenue from the content that is published by media organisations, the news organisations, especially the smaller and medium ones, suffer as more advertising goes online. Many news outlets find it difficult to negotiate commercial deals with tech companies.

Digital taxation, competition policy and reforming the intellectual property laws are some of the options that can help reset the balance in the relationship between the news producers and tech giants. Creating a mandatory code for revenue sharing ensures a level playing field. It is all about the relative market power of the news companies and the tech behemoths. With 282 million unique visitors, India is the second largest online news consuming nation after China. On its part, India must incorporate appropriate guidelines, in the proposed data protection bill, regarding the responsibilities of digital service providers to press publications.