Review may make internet giants liable for their content
A GOVERNMENT review designed to protect the future of local newspapers may include making internet giants such as Facebook and Google liable for what they host.
Speaking to members of the Johnston Press editorial board, including The Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson, Prime Minister Theresa May said the idea would be looked at as part of efforts to create a “fair playing field” for local media when it comes to digital advertising revenue.
In response to a question from Jeremy Clifford, Johnston Press editor-in-chief, about whether she plans to change the way Facebook and Google are regulated in the way they curate news stories, Mrs May said: “These platforms say, ‘We are just platforms’, others will say ‘No, you’re not, you’re a publisher’.
“Maybe there is actually a third category, something else that best describes what they do that starts to find some way in terms of looking at their liability rather than them just being able to say ‘Well, it’s nothing to do with us’.”
She added: “We have to look at how can we properly describe these organisations.”
Mrs May said the review will begin next month. “The free press is important for our democracy and quality journalism is important for our democracy,” she said. “We think that is an important thing for us to do and we will be launching that next month.” Mrs May also confirmed the Government remains committed to stopping plans put forward in the House of Lords to make newspapers pay both they and their opponents’ legal costs in relation to alleged privacy breaches.
Similar measures to make newspapers pay both sides legal costs in libel and privacy disputes, regardless of whether they win or lose, are included in Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act. But it is yet to be implemented following outrage at the prospect of newspapers paying huge penalties for stories that are true.
The Lords are now seeking to amend the Data Protection Act in what has been described by the News Media Association as “a backdoor route to obstruct investigative journalism”.