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A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

IS GOOGLE GOING TO PAY FOR NEWS?

IT’S been something of an issue for some time now – how is Google allowed to distribute news and information from news organisations without paying for it, while still hoovering up a good chunk of the advertising revenue?

According to the Wall Street Journal, there’s a chance – and it is just a chance – that might be about to change.

The word is that Google is in negotiations with news organisations to create a new product that allows them to pay publishers for their content.

Most of these organisations are in Europe, according to the Journal. Google said: “We want to help people find quality journalism — it’s important to informed democracy and helps support a sustainable news industry.

“We care deeply about this and are talking with partners and looking at more ways to expand our ongoing work with publishers, building on programmes like our Google News Initiative.”

So, watch this space…

ZUCKERBERG CALLS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATION

YOU might call this item irony corner – but Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, right, called for more regulation of social networks this week. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the tech titan said there ought to be more laws to guard against “harmful content”, and that it was not for the social networks themselves to decide what should or should not be allowed.

“We don’t want private companies making so many decisions about how to balance social equities without any more democratic process,” he said. “It is about coming up with an answer that society thinks is legitimate.”

He went on to add that Facebook had been slow to deal with co-ordinated “information campaigns” by countries such as Russia, but also said his company is now spending massive amounts of money to build solid review processes for content.