No plan yet to make Google, FB pay for news, says IT Min in Parliament

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 4

Amid mounting evidence of social media giants pocketing a massive share of advertising revenue on account of hosting news, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology this week informed Parliament that there was no plan to draft a law yet to make Google, Facebook and other social media platforms pay for news.

Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar, in an answer to a question by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, said there was no proposal for such an enactment.

Tharoor, who chairs the parliamentary standing committee on information technology, had asked if the ministry had taken cognisance of the draft law proposed in Australia and other similar moves to make Google and Facebook pay for news and, if so, what were the details.

The minister, in his reply, stated: “The government is aware of the growing risks of dominance of various big tech platforms on internet and is deploying tools and capabilities to deal with the same, including actively working with social media intermediaries. At present, there is no proposal for enactment of a law by this ministry in this regard.”

Oz law, the trigger

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had flagged the matter, referring to the law passed in Australia earlier this year that forces Google and Facebook to pay media publishers for news.