California lawmakers want Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for content – AI Tech News

California lawmakers want Google and Facebook to pay publishers for news content – the latest sign of public discontent with the growing power of the tech giants.

Buffy Wicks, a state lawmaker representing Oakland, introduced a bill that would require tech companies that profit from news content to pay the media a “journalism usage fee” when they sell content. advertisement.

The proposed legislation would also require content publishers to invest 70% of royalty proceeds in journalism jobs.

“Big Tech has become the de facto guardian of journalism and uses its dominance to establish rules for how news content is displayed, prioritized and monetized,” Emily Charrier, who heads the California News Publishers Association, told the Los Angeles Times.

“Our members are the sources of this journalism, and they deserve to be paid fair market value for the news they generate.”

The Post sought comment from Google and Facebook parent company Meta.

In December, Meta threatened to remove news content from its platform entirely if Congress approved a similar measure that would force tech companies to pay media outlets for their material.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, if passed, would allow news companies to collectively negotiate with social platforms on terms for displaying their material on their sites.

Meta said he would rather extract information from his platforms than “submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly overlook the value we bring to the media.”

The value, Meta said in a statement tweeted by spokesperson Andy Stone, includes “increased traffic and subscriptions.”

In July, Meta told media that it would no longer pay them for content on the site’s News tab.

The move was part of an overall shift in strategy that saw Facebook put less emphasis on news in favor of more creative initiatives.

In February 2021, Meta signed deals with three Australian news publishers just a day after the country’s parliament passed a law requiring digital companies to pay for news.

The move came after Meta briefly banned Facebook’s Australian news sites in protest at the legislation.

Last April, Canada said it would consider a bill requiring tech companies to pay local news publishers for content.

Meta earlier this month pledged to block all news content from its Canadian users if Ottawa lawmakers passed the “Online News Act” in its current form.

“A legislative framework that requires us to pay for links or content that we don’t post, and which are not the reason the vast majority of people use our platforms, is neither sustainable nor viable,” a spokesperson for Meta told Reuters when asked about the company’s threat.

Last year, Google’s parent company Alphabet signed deals with 300 publishers across Europe that would see the tech giant pay news sites to display snippets of journalists’ work on the results of research.

In 2021, Google signed deals with some 120 UK publications under a media compensation plan for content.

In January, the Biden administration and eight states filed a lawsuit seeking to force Google to sell its suite of ad managers, claiming the company was stifling competition.

The case is one of two Justice Department antitrust actions against Google.

The US magistrate handling the case ruled last week on an accelerated timeline for the trial.

The other, filed in October 2020 and challenging Google’s search business, is due in Washington, DC, in federal court in September.

Google has denied the allegations in both cases.