“Big Tech companies need to support broad, equally distributed journalism funds, or they can abide by these legislative efforts that are forcing them into more accountable deals with a broader range of publishers,” said Taylor Owen, an Associate Professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. Owen was addressing a panel, organised by the Digital News Publication Association (DNPA), on the ideal relationship between digital news publishers and big tech platforms, and how it impacts journalism in a country.
Panelists Taylor Owen; Paul Deegan, President and CEO, News Media Canada; and Courtney C Radsch, Fellow, UCLA, Institute for Technology, Law and Policy, broke down the growing spate of legislations proliferating globally against big tech regarding the equitable distribution of revenues between new publishers and tech companies.
Owens and Deegan discussed the Canadian Bill, ‘Online News Act’, or the liberal government’s attempt to rectify the negotiation imbalance between platforms and publishers. Google and Facebook have been aggressively opposing the Canadian Bill, especially in the backdrop of similar legislations being introduced worldwide, such as in South Africa, Germany, the UK and Brazil, which would gain momentum if the Canadian Bill passes. To placate news publishers worldwide, companies such as Google and Facebook are organising revenue sharing or licensing deals with select media outfits; however, these deals are usually selective, non-transparent and non-independent. In India, Google News Showcase has partnered with over 130 publishers, although the exact contours of the deal remain unknown.
Indian publishers have also been periodically raising an issue against Google and Facebook regarding the inequitable distribution of revenue from digital news, prompting a review from the Competition Commission of India as well as deliberations on the introduction of similar legislation. DNPA was founded recently to lobby for the interests of the digital news media. DNPA is organising dialogue with various bodies across the world leading similar legislative endeavours against Google and Facebook.