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Guest Essay
Ms. Angwin is a contributing Opinion writer and an investigative journalist.
A bitter battle is taking place between Big Tech and the free press over how to share in the income that news content generates for technology giants. The future of our news ecosystem, a linchpin of democracy, depends on the outcome.
Last week, after months of hardball negotiations, Google and the Canadian government agreed on a deal that would require the company to pay Canadian news outlets about $73.5 million a year. Canadians are no longer facing the threat that Google would remove all news content from its search results.
The settlement is far less than Canada wanted — it had sought $126 million — and a small fraction of the estimated $550 million that news publishers deserve from Google. The lesson here is clear: As much as publishers may be suffering right now, they must continue to stand firm against the bullying tactics of Big Tech.
These platforms gained their audience in part by sharing news content free. Now they are using their market power to force the press to continue to do business on their terms.
Canada is a test case for the world. In June its government passed a law that will force tech companies to pay for the news content featured on their platforms. In August, Meta, the owner of Facebook, responded by blocking Canadians from seeing or sharing any news items on Instagram and Facebook. Meta argues that it has generated significant revenue for publishers.
The ongoing Meta blockade is already damaging Canadian publishers, particularly smaller ones. Chuck Lapointe, the chief executive of Narcity Media, which operates websites designed for Gen Z and millennials, wrote that his properties had suffered a 30 percent decline in traffic and a 15 percent decline in revenue since the blockade began, forcing him to lay off over 16 employees. The Meta blockade “is killing us,” wrote Gabriel Ramirez, a journalist and co-founder of The Bridge Canada, a news outlet for Latin American immigrants.
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Opinion | News Publishers Are Fighting Big Tech Over Peanuts. They Could Be Owed Billions. – The New York Times
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