Media houses and digital platforms have a symbiotic relationship. Media houses generate news and digital platforms like Google and Facebook display this news in their feeds.
Platform users benefit because they can get all the news in one place; platforms benefit by increased user attention leading to increased ad revenue and publishers benefit as the platforms send the readers back to the news sites.
While this issue was debated on both sides for a couple of years, suddenly Covid19 happened and many journalists lost jobs as well as media houses shut shops. Few tried to monetize their content but are yet to be successful in making readers pay for the content.
Looking at the current state of news organizations, few countries have decided to force Google and Facebook to pay news publishers under competition rules.
Though Google has agreed to pay news publishers $1 billion over the next three years, the modalities are yet to be worked out.
However, the tech giants are worried about the extent of payment that needs to make if other countries too demand similar payouts.
Meanwhile, Indian publishers have also started to voice out their demand in this regard and are pushing the Indian Govt. to enact similar laws.
What’s your opinion on this contentious issue? Should the tech giants pay?