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The rapid development of social media platforms has opened new vistas for the billions who use them but has also had a malign impact that the people who run them refuse to address. They are damaging traditional purveyors of information like newspapers, which are being squeezed out of the digital advertising market by the inequality of arms. Fair competition is one thing, but Facebook and Google profit from adverts alongside content from organisations like the Telegraph without paying for the right to carry it. Moreover, the big digital players have such overwhelming market dominance that they can dictate the terms on which they use publishers’ content. Google and Facebook take 80 per cent of the annual £14 billion digital advertising revenue.

A report today from the House of Lords communications committee recommends that digital platforms should pay to use newspaper content. We agree. The peers urge the Government to get on with setting up a Digital Markets Unit, a commitment it made in March last year and which it has reaffirmed today. This would regulate online platforms that have “strategic market status” and oversee a new code of conduct.

The Government plans to consult in the New Year and legislate “when parliamentary time allows”. But the Lords report says further delays will have a devastating impact on the industry. The Government could use the Online Harms Bill now before Parliament to force platforms to pay publishers for the right to use content. The existential threat to newspapers, especially local publications, is such that something needs to happen quickly to support journalism that is needed now more than ever.