Sushil Modi bats for Law forcing tech giants to pay for news; cites Australia's example

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday advocated for introducing a new tech law, similar to the one recently-enacted in Australia, making it mandatory for Google, Facebook, and YouTube to pay revenue for the news content that they broadcasted freely. "I would urge that we follow a country like Australia because we all know that Australia has taken the lead by enacting a law ‘News media bargaining code’," said Sushil Modi while addressing the parliament. 

Talking about the financial crisis being faced by the traditional media industry, Sushil Modi asserted that with the advent of tech giants, a large share of advertisement- which was a major source of revenue for media houses - was being claimed by them.

"We all know that these traditional news media, they make heavy investment employing anchors, journalists, reporters. They gather the news, they verify the news and they deliver credible information. Advertisement is the main source of revenue for the news industry. But in the past few years, with the advent of tech giants like Google, Facebook, and YouTube, the largest share of advertisement is taken away by these tech giants," he said. 

"Government must make Google, Facebook, and YouTube pay the print and news channels for the news content they are using freely. Sir, as we all know the traditional news media like the print media, news channels and news broadcasters are passing through the worst phase in recent history. They are indeed in a financial crisis. Earlier, it was because of the pandemic and now it is because of giants like YouTube, Facebook, and Google,” the BJP MP added. 

What are Australia's new tech laws?

On February 24, the Australian Parliament passed a landmark legislation mandating global digital giants like Facebook and Google to pay for local news content. As per the new laws, Google will now pay for news content that appears on its "Showcase" product while Facebook will pay providers who appear on its "News" product, which is to be launched in Australia later this year. 

This has now facilitated investment worth millions of dollars by Google and Facebook in local content deals and is also said to provide a solution to resolving the companies' tussles with regulators worldwide.

While Google has already brokered million-dollar deals with local media companies, including the two of the world's largest-- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and Nine Entertainment, Facebook has another two months to reach further agreements and avoid binding arbitration.