She believes that society has been too naive when Facebook, for example in Australia, allows itself to block media that want payment for their content.
– It is deeply worrying, because it calls into question the democratic mindset of one of the world’s most dominant media companies.
– I do not know if it is because they do not understand it, or do not care about the importance of news media in a democratic society. They are the ones who bring journalistic based knowledge to market, she says.
Last year, the EU adopted a directive on copyright, which sets minimum standards to be set by member states.
But the Minister of Culture will go further than that by giving the Danish media the opportunity to negotiate collectively.
– We have chosen to go further than the EU requires, by giving the Danish media companies the opportunity to negotiate together with tech giants.
– Then they should not stand one by one and fight against the very large and powerful companies that tech giants have become, says the Minister of Culture.
If the parties cannot agree, it must be decided by the Copyright Licensing Board, where a Supreme Court judge is chairman.
When the trade magazine Journalisten interviewed Facebook’s Nordic top manager, Martin Ruby, about the proposal in September, he called it “not fair”. This is because Facebook also creates value for the media.
Only four percent of the content on Facebook is news, and therefore it can not pay off financially, is the argument. Last year, Facebook had a profit of 180 billion kroner.
– It shows an indifference to what gives their product value.
– If the tech giants had not properly produced content from artists or companies, what would be the reason why we who use them search in there?
– Then it could very quickly become a place for silver paper hats and conspiracy theories. Then Facebook will fall in value, the minister says to it.
Source: The Nordic Page
