News is aggregated by the Big Tech companies. More and more news is consumed online. The current system, therefore, becomes unfair to news publishers. Google and Facebook use their dominant position to get 70-80 per cent of advertising revenue which comes out of online news consumption. Mainstream news publishers incur a heavy cost and efforts in news gathering — they are the gatekeepers and fact checkers. They have to employ trained professionals to do so. Thus Big Tech makes them financially unviable.

This has led to actions in Australia which has passed a law last year that requires Big Tech to pay local media outlets fairly for linking their content in news feeds or search results. France too has implemented the EU’s updated copyright rules that require digital platforms to compensate news publishers for previews of news content. Facebook has been compelled to sign a deal with a French group that represents 300 French publishers.

India too needs some action against Big Tech. India must have independent and financially viable news media.

If news is not reliably produced, there is a plethora of fake content, half truths, manipulated content and hate mongering. It can lead to a chaotic situation. Big Tech does bring traffic to news publishers. Still, it works both ways. A lot of Google queries are news related. Therefore, Google too gets considerable traffic. Big Tech cannot enjoy a free ride. They should share online advertising revenues with news publishers equitably.

Indian authorities have moved the Competition Commission of India (CCI). It has ordered a proble against Google.