France hails victory as Facebook agrees to pay newspapers for content

France has hailed a victory in its long-running quest for fairer action from tech companies after Facebook reached an agreement with a group of national and regional newspapers to pay for content shared by its users. Facebook announced a licensing agreement with the APIG alliance of French national and regional newspapers, which includes Le Parisien and Ouest-France as well as smaller titles. France had been battling for two years to protect the publishing rights and revenue of its press and news agencies against what it termed the domination of powerful tech companies that share news content or show news stories in web searches. Pierre Louette, the head of the media group Les Echos-Le Parisien, said the terms agreed would allow Facebook to implement French law “while generating significant funding” for news publishers, notably the smallest ones. Other newspapers, such as the national daily Le Monde, have negotiated their own deals in recent months. Facebook said that besides paying for French content, it would also launch a French news service, Facebook News, in January 2022 – a follow-up to similar services in the US and UK – to “give people a dedicated space to access content from trusted and reputable news sources.”