Web giants enjoy ‘low-cost meal’ at expense of quality journalism, media minister says
- Media minister said UK should be ‘concerned’ about future of local journalism
- Government set up body to stop Google and Facebook from stifling competition
- Chairman said media giants were only handing out ‘crumbs’ to support industry
Online giants are enjoying a ‘very low-cost meal’ out of ‘high-quality journalism’, the media minister has told MPs.
Julia Lopez said there was a ‘completely unbalanced power situation’ between the big online platforms and news providers.
She told the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee that the Government should be ‘concerned’ about the future of local journalism.
The Government last year set up a Digital Markets Unit to try to make sure companies such as Google and Facebook cannot exploit their market dominance or stifle competition.
File photo: The Government last year set up a Digital Markets Unit to stop Google and Facebook from stifling competition. But the digital watchdog has still to be brought into law
The DMU was devised to tackle the dominance of Big Tech in sectors such as digital advertising, which poses a threat to quality journalism, and ensure web giants pay a fair price to news publishers for content.
But the digital watchdog has still to be brought into law. Campaigners have been left frustrated that the body is likely to remain toothless until at least 2023.
Miss Lopez admitted there was an ‘imbalance’ in ‘bargaining power’ between ‘social media platforms’ and those who create content.
She was asked by committee chairman, Tory Julian Knight, about the moves that the likes of Google and Facebook had taken to support local journalism.
Miss Lopez said: ‘These aren’t insignificant moves, but I don’t think they address the fundamental problem, which is that there is a completely unbalanced power situation between the platforms and the content providers. They are effectively getting a very low-cost meal out of high-quality journalism and I think that is a problem that the Government should be concerned about.’
Mr Knight said in their attempts to support local journalism, Google and Facebook were just handing out ‘a few crumbs’ to support this industry.
Facebook is understood to be training about 100 local news journalists with Google having a similar initiative
He said it was a ‘very small fry in their big scheme of things’ and questioned whether it was ‘just a PR stunt’.
Facebook is understood to be training about 100 local news journalists with Google having a similar initiative.
Google has also worked with the News Media Association on an online public notices portal. Miss Lopez said the online giants should not ‘diminish’ the value of news on their platforms as it was ‘valued by their customer base’.
Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan has been urged to make giving statutory powers to the DMU a priority.
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