Google and Facebook must pay their fair share of earnings they make from news content to publishers, said Sushil Kumar Modi, a Member of Parliament form the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday. Modi, a former deputy chief minister of Bihar, urged the Indian government to consider mandating "tech giants" such as Google, Facebook and YouTube (owned by Google) to their revenue with traditional media outlets, accusing them of being the cause of severe financial distress in the media industry. Modi's address in the Rajya Sabha will likely fuel discussion over the relationship between news publishers and internet platforms run by Big Tech companies. The same day, four other BJP MPs had asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) on whether the Indian government had taken note of this subject, and what it was doing about it. Is Indian Govt Looking Into Relationship Between Tech Companies And News Publishers? MPs Ask IT Ministry In his address, Modi urged the government to emulate the Australian News Media Bargaining Code, which mandates Google and Facebook to negotiate with publishers over revenue-sharing deals. Transcript of Modi's address (timestamp: 20:00 minutes) Sushil Kumar Modi: Sir, as we all know that the traditional news media like the print media, news channels, news broadcasters are passing through its worst phase in recent history. They are in deep financial crisis. Earlier it was due to pandemic, now it is because of tech giants like YouTube, Facebook and Google. Sir we all know that these traditional news…
