New Delhi
The recently passed Canadian Online News Act that seeks to rein in news intermediaries like Google is a big boost to Indian newspapers and their digital news editions, the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) has stated.
Prominent Indian newspapers and its digital editions have been representing against what they see as Google’s abuse of its monopoly and position.
According to newspaper sources, Google earns a huge amount of advertisement revenues on the content generated by the digital editions of these newspapers. However, there is no fair payback or sharing of revenues by Google causing huge financial losses to the news publishers in India.
According to news industry sources, such orders will encourage and empower Indian lawmakers and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to implement fair play and also support the growth of news media in India.
In Canada, an Online News Act has been enacted and applies to those digital news intermediaries and giants like Google who have significant leverage when it comes to online news.
The proposed rule prompts platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers in a fair manner for their content. It may be noted that Australia had also passed a similar ground-breaking law last year.
