The Agence France-Presse (AFP) announced on Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit in Paris against Elon Musk’s platform X, formerly known as Twitter, accusing it of refusing to discuss potential payment for the distribution of content from the news agency.
France adopted a regulation on “related rights” in 2019, which forces large online platforms to begin negotiations with publishers seeking compensation for news.
– The Agence France-Presse expressed concern over Twitter’s (recently renamed ‘X’) clear refusal to engage in discussions regarding the implementation of related rights… – stated the news agency in a press release.
Musk criticized AFP’s move in a post on X.
– This is bizarre. They want us to pay them for traffic on their pages where they earn advertising revenue, and we don’t!? – he stated.
X did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The French antitrust authority fined Google 500 million euros in 2021 for not complying with the aforementioned rules.
Since then, Google has committed to resolving the dispute and announced agreements with AFP and several other leading French news agencies.
Facebook has also signed contracts with some French publishers.
