Technology giants 'hogging' share of media's revenue, 'broad consensus' needed: Venkaiah Naidu

Vice president Venkaiah Naidu today referred to the possibility of India following in the footsteps of Australia's recent legislation that could force technology giants Google and Facebook to pay for news content, the Times of India reported.

Naidu was giving a lecture to students of Manipal Institute of Communication. He said: "Print media that is increasingly going online is struggling to come up with a viable revenue model. Technology giants are hogging share of the revenue so generated...Only a broad consensus on lines with efforts elsewhere globally will help the traditional (print) media to survive with their fair share of revenues generated.”

PTI quoted Naidu as saying: "The information reports generated by the print media with substantial cost is being hijacked by the social media giants. This is unfair..."

Earlier this month, Australia tabled a legislation that will make Google and Facebook "negotiate a fair payment with news organisations for using their content in Facebook’s newsfeed and Google’s search", the Guardian reported. Google rejected the law today, saying it would "fundamentally break how search engines work".

During the lecture, Naidu also said the line between "news and fake news" has "become very thin", and said that "self-regulation" is the "best way to enhance credibility of journalism", TOI reported.