Channel News Asia: Malaysia mulls rules for Google, Meta to pay news outlets for content. “Malaysia said on Tuesday (Sep 5) it is considering regulations that will make internet giants Alphabet’s Google and Facebook parent Meta Platforms compensate news outlets for content sourced from them.”
CTV News: Online News Act could see Google, Meta pay combined $230 million to Canadian media. “Federal officials estimate Google would need to offer $172 million and Facebook $62 million in annual compensation to satisfy criteria they’re proposing be used to give exemptions under the Online News Act, a bill passed over the summer that will force tech companies to broker deals with media companies whose work they link to or repurpose.”
Mashable: YouTube star KSI shares how little he’s made from X monetization. “KSI is a YouTuber with more than 24 million subscribers on his channel. He has turned his online fame into a career in music and boxing. Along with YouTuber and WWE Superstar Logan Paul, he is a co-founder of the Prime sports and energy drink company. He posts on X regularly and his tweets receive millions of views. So, how much did KSI make from Musk’s platform over the past month? $1,590.”
Tech Policy Press: The Value of News Content to Google is Way More Than You Think. “The study, conducted by FehrAdvice & Partners AG on behalf of the SWISS MEDIA publishers’ association with oversight by leading academics, assessed the value of journalistic content on the Google search engine in Switzerland and its impact on user behavior and satisfaction, concluding that the market share of Google searches that use media content results in an estimated revenue of about $440 million per year. It suggests that if Google did not have a dominant monopoly position in web search and faced serious competition, fair compensation for the value that media content provides to Google search would amount to about 40% of total revenue, or approximately $176 million per year in Switzerland alone.”
TechCrunch: Google pushes Match for more money in antitrust battle, court filing states. “Google has filed a new motion to the court in its antitrust battle with Epic Games and Match Group, where it claims that the dating app maker owes additional fees beyond the $40 million that had been previously set aside in escrow. Those funds are Google’s cut of Match’s in-app payments on Google Play that Match argues are ‘illegal under federal and state law’ — something the court case will decide. By Google’s calculations, the new figure should total around $84 million instead, based on Match’s public earnings.”
Techdirt: Elon Starts Bribing His Biggest Fans As He Admits The Company Is Still Burning Cash (Despite His Earlier Claims To The Contrary). “Elon’s own decisions destroyed the company’s revenue and saddled it with way more expenses in the form of debt interest/repayment. The company is bleeding users and revenue, and despite promising a large group of users payouts if they joined his failed ‘Twitter Blue’ program, the company is only paying that money to a small handpicked group which seems to consist almost entirely of accounts that suck up to Musk on the platform.”
Sacramento Bee: California bill to make Facebook, Google pay for news is delayed until 2024. “A California bill that would make Google and Facebook pay for news content that they use on their platforms to sell ads won’t be moving forward this year. Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, and Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, announced Friday that Assembly Bill 886 is being made a two-year bill, meaning it won’t be taken up again until 2024.”
Reuters: Google to block news in Canada over law on paying publishers. “Google said on Thursday it plans to block Canadian news on its platform in Canada, joining Facebook in escalating a campaign against a new law requiring payments to local news publishers.”
Toronto Star: Liberal bill requiring Google and Meta to pay for news content passes in Senate . “A federal bill that will require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms is set to become law. The Senate has passed the bill in a final vote and it is now awaiting royal assent amid a standoff between the Liberal government and Silicon Valley tech giants.”
CNN: Senate Judiciary advances journalism bargaining bill targeting Big Tech. “The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced legislation on Thursday that would give news organizations the power to jointly bargain against Meta, Google and other online platforms for a greater share of online advertising revenue.”
PC Magazine: Google News Showcase Lands in US, Lowering Some Paywalls in the Process. “Instead of Google showing headlines and snippets of news stories and leaving it up to news sites to make money off that content (often via a display-ads market that multiple antitrust lawsuits say is twisted by Google’s exploitative conduct), Showcase has Google pay news sites directly for the right to feature those stories.”
Toronto Star: Justin Trudeau shows no interest in compromising with Meta, Google over online news bill. “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is showing no interest in compromising with Meta and Google over a proposed law that would make them pay for Canadian journalism that helps tech companies generate revenue.”
National Post (Canada): Google threatens existing deals with news publishers over Bill C-18. “If the Liberal government pushes ahead with its online news bill, Google could cut or end existing deals with Canadian news outlets, a Google executive told senators Wednesday evening.”
Globe and Mail: Google denies it engaged in ‘astroturfing’ to lobby Ottawa through third parties . “Google denied accusations in a Commons committee Thursday that it had engaged in ‘astroturfing’ campaigns to lobby against federal bills by paying individuals and other organizations to oppose them.”
City A.M.: Google to change app store rules after UK competition agency flags concerns. “Google said it will allow app developers in the UK to use alternative payment options following an investigation by the UK’s competition regulator. The tech giant said it would present other payment options to Google Play’s billing system for in-app purchases ‘in a neutral manner’ if its commitments are accepted by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).”
The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.
Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.