The press in Azerbaijan is beginning to face serious financial difficulties, and one of the main reasons for this is global IT giants.
elchi reports, citing Trend, that “Facebook”, “Instagram”, “TikTok”, “X”, “YouTube”, and “Google” have captured almost the entire advertising market in Azerbaijan. These platforms, due to their technical capabilities, keep advertising prices low, thereby depriving the Azerbaijani media of advertisers. In addition, global IT giants use content from the Azerbaijani media without permission, but do not make any payments in return.
This problem is not unique to Azerbaijan but is global. For example, in Canada, “Google” and “Meta” together control approximately 80 percent of the total advertising market. Researchers at Columbia University have calculated how much technology giants should pay news journalism under fair conditions. According to their estimates, in the US alone, “Google” and “Meta” should pay American publishers $11.9-13.9 billion annually. This is significantly more than the amount the companies currently pay. Media organizations in Australia, Canada, and Europe are also ceasing operations and reducing staff for the same reasons.
However, some countries have already found a way out of the current situation. In 2019, the European Union introduced, let’s say, neighboring rights for publishers. Based on these rights, if a platform uses publishers’ materials, it must make a payment in return. France was the first to implement this norm, and “Google” was forced to sign an agreement with the alliance of French publishers. The company tried to evade responsibility, and the French authorities fined it. Thus, in 2021, it was fined 500 million euros for unfair negotiations with the press, and in March 2024, another 250 million euros for failing to fulfill its obligations.
Australia passed legislation in 2021 making it mandatory for platforms to negotiate with media organizations. As a result, “Google” and “Meta” signed more than 30 contracts, providing for payments of 200-250 million Australian dollars annually. Australia is now going further by imposing a special fee on platforms that refuse to pay. Canada, in turn, passed a law on online news in 2023. Now “Google” pays 100 million Canadian dollars annually to the Canadian media.
It is time for the Azerbaijani media to take action. The main lesson learned from the French experience is that publishers lose when they fight individually. During negotiations with “Google” in France, independent publishers openly admitted that the company exploited their fragmented position. As a result, in 2024, 32 media groups from 13 European countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, united and filed a lawsuit against “Google” for 2.1 billion euros, submitting the case to the Amsterdam court. This shows that even the media of small countries can jointly defend their rights in foreign courts.
It is time for the Azerbaijani media, the Press Council, the Media Development Agency, and professional journalist associations to start joint action. For this, first of all, the actual damage incurred must be calculated, legislative recognition of publishers’ rights must be achieved, collective negotiations with platforms must be conducted, and if necessary, recourse to the courts of foreign countries should be made. If global technology giants pay publishers in other countries, there is no reason why Azerbaijani journalism should continue to increase their profits for free from now on.