As Australia makes Big Tech pay for news, India says ‘closely monitoring’ situation

Union Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said India is “closely monitoring” the developments in Australia and elsewhere with respect to making Big Tech pay for using the content of news publishers, without providing any details.

“India is following those developments with respect to making social media platforms pay for news content,” Javadekar said when he was asked about India’s reaction to Australia’s landmark legislation.

He made the comments during the press conference held in New Delhi today to notify ‘Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021’ which aims to regulate OTT platforms, social media content and digital news portals.

Earlier, Indian Newspaper Society (INS) President L Adimoolan in a letter to Google India Country Manager Sanjay Gupta demanded that Google should pay newspapers for gathering news and verifying information. According to a report in Exchange4media, the INS president argued that the content generated by newspapers is done at considerable expense to news outlets, is proprietary and it is this credible content that has given Google authenticity in India since its inception.

As Australia makes Big Tech pay for news, India says ‘closely monitoring’ situationAs Australia makes Big Tech pay for news, India says ‘closely monitoring’ situation.

Union Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said India is “closely monitoring” the developments in Australia and elsewhere with respect to making Big Tech pay for using the content of news publishers, without providing any details.

“India is following those developments with respect to making social media platforms pay for news content,” Javadekar said when he was asked about India’s reaction to Australia’s landmark legislation.

He made the comments during the press conference held in New Delhi today to notify ‘Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021’ which aims to regulate OTT platforms, social media content and digital news portals.

Earlier, Indian Newspaper Society (INS) President L Adimoolan in a letter to Google India Country Manager Sanjay Gupta demanded that Google should pay newspapers for gathering news and verifying information. According to a report in Exchange4media, the INS president argued that the content generated by newspapers is done at considerable expense to news outlets, is proprietary and it is this credible content that has given Google authenticity in India since its inception.

INS reportedly argued that “Publishers have provided complete access to quality journalism with credible news, current affairs, analysis, information and entertainment”, adding, “there is a huge distinction between the editorial content from quality publications and fake news that is spreading on other information platforms”. Timesnownews