Facebook is using its financial edge to break into live audio and compete with the likes of Clubhouse and Discord. The company is offering to pay creators up to $50,000 to use its live audio rooms feature, according to a report by The Information. Earlier this year, Instagram and Youtube also implemented similar strategies to promote Reels and Shorts. Does this trend of platforms paying creators dispute their status as intermediaries under the IT Rules 2021, making them publishers instead? In India, the platform vs publisher debate has become more relevant than ever with the IT Rules coming into effect. Whether the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube will be treated as publishers or intermediaries will define how they will be regulated and how much responsibility they bear for the content on their 'platforms'. Facebook pays musicians and creators to compete with Clubhouse The report by The Information has significant details about Facebook's deal with creators to use Live Audio, the company's Clubhouse competitor: Payment: Facebook is offering creators anywhere in the range of $10,000 and $50,000 to use the platform's live audio feature alongside an additional $10,000 as fee for inviting guests, the report said. Format: According to the report, creators will be expected to host four to six sessions of at least 30 minutes at length. This also goes on to show that the company is curating both creators and the format of their content. This decision is not something Facebook is being sneaky about. In fact, Meta…
