Tech giants ‘should pay news groups for content’

LEADING online tech firms must be forced to pay news providers for using their content, peers have told ministers.

In a report, they warned of a ‘fundamental imbalance of power’ between news publishers and online platforms.

The Lords Communications Committee wants a ‘mandatory news bargaining code’ – based on an Australian model – to be included in the Government’s Online Harms Bill.

Its report said: ‘Due to their dominant market position, Facebook and Google can stipulate the terms on which they use publishers’ content.’ It said tech giants decided ‘whether and how much they pay for news on their platform’ and ‘which news sources their algorithms rank most highly’.