The agreement between Canada and Google is part of the Online News Act, which aims to support a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen a flight of advertising dollars and hundreds of publications closed in the last decade.
After years of harsh negotiations and pressure tactics, which saw many social media platforms block news content in Canada to avoid having to compensate media companies, Ottawa and Google recently announced a “historic” agreement, where the tech giant would pay Canadian media companies compensation for the loss of advertising revenue.
“Canada has accomplished something historic,” minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge told reporters.
Most of the payout will go to the print media because it is “really dependent” on online platforms to distribute its content, an official said.
Meta, the Facebook parent company which is also affected by the new legislation, still opposes the text which it called “fundamentally flawed”.
‘Need an Atmanirbhar news industry’
In India too, there has been some discussion on sharing of ad revenue.
In February this year, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi had floated an idea where tech giants would have to share ad revenue, which they earn from posting news reports, with media organisations who are the original content publishers.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget Session, Modi said newspapers and TV channels were losing advertising revenue after big technology companies entered the market.
He added that print and electronic media companies spend thousands of crores of rupees on news content creation and that the main source of income for traditional print and electronic media is advertising revenue.
The MP further submitted that Google India’s income from advertisement during 2021-22 was Rs 24,927 crore. He also said Facebook’s advertising revenue in 2021-22 was Rs 16,189 crore – which was a 75% increase over the preceding year.
“These big tech companies do not spend money on content creation. But show the readymade content for free … an Atmanirbhar Bharat needs Atmanirbhar news industry,” he said, adding that a provision in this regard should be made in the Digital India Act.
What is the Digital India Act?
The proposed Digital India Act will replace the 23-year-old Information and Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act), and is anticipated to regulate platforms, user harms, and the ethical use of technology, among other issues.
The act has been in consultation since March this year, and while there were talks of the Bill’s draft being released in June, the draft bill is yet to be made public.
On November 30, minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said a Bill might be tabled after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be able to catch the legislative window before the elections because we need a lot of consultation and debate and discussion around it,” he said, adding that the government has a roadmap of the legislation, policy goals and the policy principles for safety and trust.
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