In the ongoing winter session of the Parliament, the Indian government has confirmed that it currently has no plans of charging tech giants like Facebook and Google for using news content from local publishers on their platforms.
The Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics & Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar confirmed that unlike the Australian government, it has no proposal as of yet, to put in place any law which mandates payment from tech giants for using news content from in-house publishers.
India Has No Plans to Mandate Charges on Tech Giants for Using Indian News Content
In the ongoing winter session of the Parliament, MP Shashi Tharoor asked the Indian government if it had plans to make platforms like Facebook and Google pay for publishing news content from Indian publishers on their platforms, on concerns related to market power and dominance of such entities.
He said, “whether the ministry has taken cognizance of the draft law proposed in Australia and other similar moves to make platforms such as Google and Facebook pay for news and if so, the details thereof.”
In response to the above query, Chandrasekhar clarified that while the government is aware of such a law in Australia, it has no plans currently, to put into act any such law on tech giants.
“Government is aware of the growing risks of dominance of various big tech platforms on the internet and is deploying tools and capabilities to deal with the same including actively working with social media intermediaries. Presently, there is no proposal for enactment of a law by this ministry in this regard,” the minister added.
What is Australia’s Social Media Law?
In February 2021, the Australian government put into place a law called the “News Media and Digital Platform Mandatory Bargaining Code”, which mandated digital platforms to Facebook and Google to pay for local news content.
This received backlashes from both Google and Facebook, threatening to withdraw key services from Australia before the law came into effect.
However, the Australian government did not change its verdict on the law and passed it in Feb 2021, while both companies agreed and entered into some partnerships with Australian media companies, stated an India Today report.
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