Lack of trust: on tech forums and news publishers

India’s competition watchdog decides to order probe into Google. The development isn’t a total surprise. Because, governments in many countries, such as Australia and France, have used their political capital in recent years to correct the huge imbalance that exists between the big technology companies that control news in the digital space today and the traditional journalism industry that controls news. News that keeps the wheels moving, thereby also forming the basis for conversations that are so important in a democracy. The investigation has been ordered based on a complaint from the Digital News Publishers Association of India, alleging that Google not only dominates the market for information, but also abuses this dominance, It does so, the association alleges of not providing its fair share of advertising money and not providing enough information. It has also complained that it does not get paid for the news snippets that appear in the search. The overarching point of the association is that the terms of engagement are “unilaterally and arbitrarily” set by the tech platform, and there is nothing its members can do about it. The imbalance of power and the denial of a fair share of revenue would be questions the watchdog would be interested in exploring.

For example, what was recognized by parliamentarians in Australia, when they came up with a law last year Which sought to level the playing field between big tech platforms and news publishers, a position that is true around the world. In India too, the power imbalance exists and has become worse in recent years. The news media industry, which invests in journalists, has struggled to keep afloat while the big tech platforms have become more and more powerful. But the Australian case is one of a rare intervention by the government in publisher-platform relations. The current investigation in India is a matter of publishers finding a suitable existing forum in search of relief. The sustainability of journalism in the digital age has far-reaching implications, especially in a democracy. It has become quite clear in recent years that the industry has sacrificed quality in search of more eyeballs, and eliminated nuance in search of more emotional connect. The cost of not getting a fair price for a journalistic effort can never be adequately reduced.