However, the fact of the matter is that these companies actively promote and use this content to boost their revenue and engagement, and because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up taking money out of the pockets of news publishers a number of governments have proposed reforms that would mandate that the tech giants pay publishers for any of their content that they end up using at any given point in time.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that most governments have not really taken any concrete steps towards this sort of thing. Until now, that is, with the Australian government becoming the first in the world to legally require these tech companies to pay news publishers by meeting with them and agreeing up on a fee that would be paid. If both parties fail to come to an agreement, a representative from the government would end up becoming responsible for the arbitration process and would help decide on a fair payment scheme.
The Australian government as well as many news publishers have hailed this as an excellent step towards preserving the future of independent journalists and the like. However, both Facebook and Google have been heavily critical of this, and they might lash out by no longer featuring Australian news as much as they do news from other countries.
Photo: DENIS CHARLET / AFP / Getty
Read next: Twitter Offers A Look Back At 2020, Highlighting The Most Retweeted Subject Matter Of The Year
This post was written by Zia Muhammad and was first posted to Digital Information World
Do you find this article helpful? Your Friend might too. So, please Share it with them using the Share button above.
Will you like to get notified when I post new updates? Then Follow me on any of my social media handles: Google News, Telegram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest.
You can also drop your email address below if you wish to be notified by mail.
