Regulating Digital News Intermediaries

• 11 May 2022

For Prelims: Article 19

For Mains: Need to Regulate Digital News Intermediaries

Why in News?

Recently, Canada introduced a Bill that seeks to make Internet platforms such as Google and Facebook pay news publishers for use of their content.

What is the underlying Idea?

• The bill seeks to regulate digital news intermediaries “to enhance fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace and contribute to its sustainability.”
• The legislation is expected to produce four outcomes.
  • A framework that supports fair business relationships between digital platforms and news outlets.
  • Sustainability in the news ecosystem.
  • Maintenance of press independence.
  • Diversity within the news landscape.

What is the Nature of Publisher-Platform Relationships?

• Use of Tools and Strategies:
  • Their relationship has till recently been largely about how publishers can use tools and strategies to better use the reach provided by these platforms.
  • Google and Facebook provide much of the traffic for a lot of traditional news publishers.
• Making Money:
  • All over the world the platforms are able to make much of the money from this arrangement while publishers struggle.
  • The publishers also have to contend with frequent changes to the platform algorithm, which comes with the real threat of them losing a large amount of readers all of a sudden.

What is the importance of Such Law for India?

• About:
  • The Canadian order on the issue is likely to boost the chances of India’s news publishers getting a fair revenue-sharing system in the country.
  • ndia in December 2021 said that it had no plans to make tech giants, such as Facebook and Google, pay local publishers for news content.
  • However, following a complaint by Digital News Publishers’ Association (DNPA) the Competition Commission of India ordered investigations into Google earlier in 2022.
    • In the process of the order, the watchdog did take note of the legislations in Australia and France.
• Need to Regulate:
  • India, once the world's largest unconnected country, will soon be one of the world’s biggest internet-enabled nations, with over 800 million online.
  • Technology will likely be a big part of our economy, accounting for almost a fifth of our overall output.
  • Unregulated social and digital media could pose a threat to India’s rise as a trustworthy and responsible nation, as also Indian democracy, the world’s largest.
  • These challenges can be addressed by regulating social media efficiently and modernizing our laws and institutions.

What is the Status in Other Countries?

• Google and Facebook face legal battles over compensation for using news content worldwide.
  • They also face antitrust lawsuits from regulators and publishers.
• With news publishers in Australia, the UK, the European Union, and France having enacted or planning to enact laws to enforce a fair revenue-sharing model, the tech giants seem to be fighting desperately to hang on to their alleged monopolistic system to rake in huge revenues.

Source: TH