Mat Kenyon


03


Felling the tech giants


using journalistic content for free. Te plan calls for a one-off windfall tax of 6 per cent from the likes of Facebook and Google, then a levy based on profits imposed as part of a Digital Services Tax to fund public interest journalism. Te union has long advocated a levy and now a consensus is growing. Governments and the EU have become bolder in calling out these companies for the great harm caused by their market dominance and failure to self-regulate while the platforms are used by trolls and to disseminate false news, lies and hate. A report by the United States’ Subcommitee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law [htps://cnb.cx/34yqH6b] released this month concluded that the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google has put the USA’s economy and democracy at stake. Tey have acquired hundreds of companies in the past 10 years. Te commitee said Congress must quash their market monopoly and change antitrust laws which could result in parts of their businesses


O


ne of the major planks of the NUJ’s News Recovery Plan is that the tech giants pay their way aſter years of


being separated. American news industry representatives described how harmful Google and Facebook had been. Since 2006, newspaper advertising revenue fell by more than 50 per cent. Despite significant growth in online traffic, titles were closing and the number of journalists’ posts halved. “As a result, communities throughout the United States are increasingly going without sources for local news,” the report said. News aggregation packages removed stories from their sources and changes to Google’s and Facebook’s algorithms had devastating effects on news publishers’ digital strategies. Te report linked reduced quality local news to lower rates of voter turnout and lower levels of social cohesion. Te commitee drew on the


Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s draſt code of conduct to force the tech giants to negotiate with publishers over fair payment and algorithm changes. If no agreement is reached, the code allows an arbitrator to decide terms. Google and Facebook responded by threatening to ditch Australian news from their platforms and the big tech bosses were equally


truculent during questioning from the US commitee. Closer to home, the News Media


Association has called on the UK government to legislate to make the tech giants pay for news. It said that of about £14bn spent on digital ads in 2019, 80 per cent was earned by Google and Facebook, with national and local news websites taking just 4 per cent.


Discuss how your branch can lobby for curbs on the tech giants’ powers


Action •


Promote the News Recovery Plan to local and regional politicians


•


htps://www.nuj.org.uk/news/nuj- launches-news-recovery-plan/


CAMPAIGN


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