Google and Facebook forge partnerships with publishers to fight infox

Audio 02:42

By: Amaury de Rochegonde Follow

We are talking to you, Amaury de Rochegonde, Google and Facebook who are increasingly faced with their responsibilities with media publishers. Or as platforms in the fight against infox.

Publicity

It sounds like a big concession from Google and yet it is only the confirmation of a policy. Thursday, the giant announced on his blog that he agreed to pay press publishers for quality content through a "new information experience". Include access to paid articles in a new news platform that Google will make free by paying partners a license fee. In Germany, Der Spiegel , Die Zeit , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung have signed just like The Conversation or Private Media in Australia or Diarios Associados and A Gazetain Brazil. Other countries should follow, such as the Netherlands.

In France, publishers are reluctant, or at least hesitate. Google has offered the same type of bilateral agreements to the groups Le Monde , Le Figaro , Les Echos-Le Parisien or Ouest France . In the end, a few hundred thousand euros, but also the sacrifice of everyone's interest for the benefit of one or a few. Because France was the first country in Europe, last summer, to transpose into law the directive on copyright for the press, neighboring law. And Google was ordered by the Competition Authority in early April to negotiate with publishers who want remuneration. A collective agreement, therefore, which is the complete opposite of an arrangement between two parties.

For its part, Google has understood that it had to take a step on the side of publishers while it is in the crosshairs of many countries for its dominant position on the Internet, its difficulty in paying tax and its ability to spread misinformation despite the power of its algorithm. The antidote to the info is, of course, verified information.

Like Facebook, the giant is confronted with untruths, or hateful content on Youtube. However he knows that Facebook must support, for this reason, a call to boycott American advertisers, like Verizon, Unilever or Ben & Jerry's, who accuse the social network of not fighting enough against hate messages. Brands can find themselves backed, in full "Black lives Matter", with racist, anti-Semitic or conspiratorial content. This is what happened to Verizon. To try to be seen no longer as enemies but as media allies, Google - like Facebook - establishes partnerships with publishers: on subscriptions, through a special Covid aid fund or for media innovation . It is also a way of saying that it is up to others to take on some editorial responsibility.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Facebook
• Google
• Media
• Internet

On the same subject

Competition: US justice plans lawsuit against Google

German justice orders Facebook to restrict collection of private data