Facing a regulatory crackdown, the US BigTech companies including Google and Facebook may soon be required to pay newspapers and other media outlets in the UK for using their stories.
The UK government plans to roll out a new set of laws in line with the Australian rules that mandate technology majors to pay the respective news agencies for using their stories.
Under the plans, the platforms will be encouraged to negotiate payment deals with news organisations. If the negotiations fail, an independent arbitrator would set a fair price, a latest UK government report said.
The move, being driven by UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, also comes amid growing concerns that the tech companies are dominating online advertising, to the detriment of consumers and businesses.
The new regime will be regulated by the Digital Markets Unit (DMU), the digital watchdog that was set up within the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to rein in the power of the tech platforms, the report said.
The unit will also investigate the algorithms used by search engines such as Google, which many news organisations believe are manipulated to disproportionately direct search enquiries towards Left-leaning news organisations, and filter how people read and access news, to the detriment of quality, paid-for journalism, Daily Mail reported.
Once the new regime is rolled out, it will give news publishers greater transparency over the algorithms that drive traffic and revenue along with more control over the presentation and branding of news content.
