Facebook agrees to pay French publishers for hosting content
Facebook has signed a deal with a consortium of French publishers to pay for links to news stories shared on the social media platform.
An announcement said that Facebook struck the deal with the Alliance de la Presse d’Information Generale, which represents close to 300 French news outlets including daily newspapers Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Les Echos.
Talks were spurred on by the introduction of France’s law on the Creation of Neighboring Rights for the Benefit of Press Agencies and Publishers in October 2019. Since then, Facebook has worked with the Alliance to “establish a framework that meets the requirements of this new publisher rights”, the company said.
“It has not been a quick process, but one that has been conducted with careful consideration,” Facebook said in a blog post announcing the partnership.
A source close to the matter told Reuters that the agreement covers two types of licenses, one for news content shared on the social media website, and another for its Facebook News website.
Facebook said that the copyright deal looks to “improve the quality of online information for internet users and publishers on Facebook”, but further terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Pierre Louette, chairman of the Alliance and CEO of Groupe Les Echos – Le Parisien, said: “I am very pleased to reach this agreement, which is the result of an outspoken and fruitful dialogue between publishers and a leading digital platform.
“The terms we came up with will allow Facebook to implement the [EU copyright] directive and French law, while generating significant funding for Alliance publishers – notably the smallest ones. This first step in the concrete implementation of neighboring rights shows that solidarity between publishers is key to efficiently defend their interests.”
Paid content
This agreement comes amid pressure from agencies and governments for social media outlets and search engines to reimburse news publishers for hosting their content.
Google has also signed a deal with Alliance de la Presse d’Information Generale.
The terms of Google’s deal include remuneration for the contribution that publication makes to political and general information, the daily volume of publications, and the monthly internet audience of that publication.
Pressure has also come from French competition regulator Autorité de la Concurrence, which said that Google is obliged to pay publishers and news outlets for reusing their content. The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the same in October 2020.
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