3-8-2023 (PARIS) On Wednesday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) took legal action against Elon Musk’s X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, alleging that it failed to engage in discussions about potential payment for the distribution of AFP’s news content.
The lawsuit is based on France’s “neighbouring rights” copyright law enacted in 2019, which requires large online platforms to negotiate with publishers for compensation related to news content.
In a statement, AFP expressed its concerns about X’s refusal to enter into discussions regarding the implementation of neighbouring rights for the press.
In response to AFP’s move, Elon Musk criticised the agency in a post on X social media, questioning the demand for payment for traffic to their site where they generate advertising revenue.
X, formerly Twitter, has not provided any comment on the matter.
In 2021, France’s antitrust watchdog imposed a fine of 500 million euros on Alphabet’s Google for non-compliance with orders to conduct talks with the country’s news publishers.
Since then, Google has committed to resolving the dispute and has reached agreements with AFP and several other prominent French news organizations. Meta Platforms’ Facebook has also signed deals with certain French publishers.
