French news agency Agence France-Presse sued Twitter Wednesday, accusing the social media company of failing to adhere to a local law that requires online platforms to pay news publishers for displaying their content.
The AFP has sued Twitter—now known as 'X'—for failing to comply with a French law that requires ... [+]
AFP said it filed the suit before the Judicial Court of Paris in an attempt to compel Twitter “to provide all the necessary elements required for assessing the remuneration owed” to the publisher under French law.
France adopted the EU copyright directive known as “neighboring rights” into law in 2019, enforcing online platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter to negotiate a licensing deal with news publishers for displaying their content on their platforms.
AFP said its lawsuit is in response to Twitter’s “clear refusal…to enter into discussions regarding the implementation of neighboring rights for the press.”
The news agency said it would “continue to employ the appropriate legal means” with online platforms to ensure “fair distribution” of value generated from sharing news content.
Twitter’s owner Elon Musk expressed bewilderment about the news of the suit, tweeting: “This is bizarre. They want us to pay them for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue, and we don’t!?”
The French neighboring rights law is one of many similar legislations being enacted across the world as countries try to shield their local media outlets from the impact of online platforms. News organizations have long argued that platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter use their content to grow engagement and generate ad revenue without appropriate compensation. The tech giants have argued against this saying their platforms help drive traffic to the publishers and have argued that paying a “link tax” would break the fundamental idea of the open internet. Despite this both Google and Facebook have inked deals with French publishers over the past few years, to pay them for carrying their content.
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