Enact law on lines of Australia to make Facebook, Google pay for news: Sushil Modi in Rajya Sabha

BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Modi on Wednesday demanded a law to ensure social media sites share revenue with electronic and print media for using their content, on lines of Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code enacted last week.

Raising the issue in the Upper House, Modi said traditional media was going through its worst phase in recent history and was in a “deep financial crisis” — earlier, due to the pandemic and now, due to sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Google. “We all know that traditional news media makes heavy investment in employing anchors, journalists and reporters. They gather news, verify news and deliver credible information. Advertisement is the main source of revenue for the news industry,” he said.

“But, in the past few years, with the advent of Google, Facebook and YouTube, the largest share of advertisements is taken away by these tech giants,” Sushil Modi said.


The BJP MP mentioned how Australia compelled Google to share advertisement revenue with news media. “In Australia, Google threatened and for a week, blacked out news on their portal, but ultimately, it was enacted and they had to surrender. Australia has set precedence and now France and other European countries are making laws for sharing of advertisement revenue,” said Modi.

He requested the government to enact a similar law to compel Google to share revenue. “India should take a lead in making Google and Facebook pay a fair share of earnings they make from domestically produced news content on the Internet,” Modi said.

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, who was in the Chair, said this is a “suggestion worth considering.” Several MPs, cutting across party lines, associated themselves with the views expressed by Modi.