It seems like being the world’s richest person doesn’t come with a lot of breaks, as is apparent by Elon Musk and what he’s going through right now. Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French news agency, lodged a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s ‘X‘ social media platform, previously known as Twitter. The agency alleges that ‘X’ is not complying with its obligations under a French law, passed in 2019, to negotiate potential compensation for publishing news content. The legislation, referred to as “neighbouring rights”, mandates substantial online entities to initiate dialogue with publishers seeking recompense for their news. The AFP contends that ‘X’ is noticeably avoiding these mandated discussions.
Elon Musk resorted to his own platform, X, where he voiced his distaste regarding the lawsuit
In an official statement, the AFP voiced its anxiety: “Agence France-Presse has expressed its concerns over the clear refusal from Twitter (recently rebranded as ‘X’) to enter into discussions regarding the implementation of neighbouring rights for the press.”
Musk retorted to the accusations on his own platform, questioning the rationality of AFP’s demand. “This is bizarre. They want us to pay them for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don’t!?” Musk commented.
Despite requests, ‘X’ has not provided any public comment regarding the pending litigation.
This event has echoes from 2021 when Google, the tech giant, was fined a hefty 500 million euros by France’s antitrust watchdog for non-compliance with the very same law. Following this ruling, Google assented to resolve the dispute and has since confirmed agreements with AFP along with other prominent French news institutions. Facebook, now rebranded as Meta Platforms, also conceded to the law and has entered into contracts with several French publishers.
This lawsuit indicates a continued tension between news agencies and social media platforms over compensation for news content, which could greatly affect the landscape of news distribution in the digital age.
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(Via)
