New Zealand is planning to bring in a law mandating Big Tech firms, such as Alphabet Inc (which owns Google) and Meta Platforms Inc (Facebook), to pay media firms for the local news content that appears on their feed.
According to a Reuters report, the New Zealand Minister of Broadcasting, Willie Jackson, said on Sunday that the law would be on the lines of similar rules in Australia and Canada.
Need for law
Facebook and Google are platforms from where a very large number of readers, globally, consume their news. The tech firms influence what sort of news, and from what publications, a user gets to see on her feed. The platforms gain in terms of clicks, engagement and revenue from the content produced by news media organisations. This, when the media firms themselves, especially if they are small newspapers, are struggling financially, with more and more advertising going online. Over the years and in different corners of the world, there have been calls for Big Tech “fairly…
