Government plans law to make Google, Facebook pay for news | What this means

If implemented, the proposed law would not just benefit the media companies but also consumers.

After Australia, Canada and France, now India is reportedly putting the final touches to a new piece of legislation that would make tech giants like Google and Facebook pay for the news content they display on their platforms.

If implemented, the proposed law would compel global tech majors such as Alphabet (owner of Google, YouTube), Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), Twitter, and Amazon to pay Indian newspapers and digital news publishers a share of the revenue they earn by using original content produced by these news outlets.

The need for the law stems from the fact that while the tech giants earn revenue from putting up news content from the media houses, they fail to share the earnings fairly. For news publishers, there has been a growing concern that these digital news intermediaries have opaque revenue models, heavily biased towards themselves.

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There has been a global fightback against Big Tech’s abuse of its dominant position on the internet. The news industries in several countries have been victims of exploitative and monopolistic practices. And now, countries are starting to look for ways to tackle and curb the menace through legislation and/or fines and penalties.

Countries like France and Australia have introduced specific laws in order to provide a level playing field for their domestic news publishers while negotiating techno-commercial contracts with Big Tech. Canada has recently tabled a Bill that proposes to end Google's dominance and ensure fair revenue sharing.

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