France's AFP Sues X Over Compensation

Facts

• French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) is suing Elon Musk's X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, over its failure to discuss payment for the distribution of AFP content.¹
• On Wednesday, AFP said it had filed a lawsuit in Paris to compel Twitter to hand over information to allow AFP to determine appropriate compensation for content sharing.²
• In 2019, France was the first EU country to adopt “neighboring rights" — empowering news publishers to seek compensation for sharing their work on digital platforms. AFP described this legal action against Twitter as part of its "ongoing commitment" to this principle.³
• While Google and Meta have agreed to pay some French media outlets, AFP has accused X of a "clear refusal" to discuss neighboring rights.⁴
• Twitter did not respond to media requests for comment on the legal action by AFP. In an X post, Elon Musk said, "They want us to pay *them* for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don't!?"⁵
• This comes as, in response to an ongoing effort to get tech firms to pay for news on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X, Meta has blocked users in Canada from seeing posts from news organizations. Google has also suggested it would make similar moves.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Al Jazeera, ³Associated Press, ⁴INQUIRER, ⁵Business Insider, and ⁶UPI.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by AFP. AFP is right to take legal action against Twitter for refusing to pay for using AFP-authored content. As per French law, publishers are entitled to compensation from digital platforms that distribute their content without paying for the privilege. Musk needs to pay up and recognize the value news outlets bring to his platform.
• Narrative B, as provided by Breaking News. The French copyright case against Twitter is bizarre. X helps news agencies generate traffic to their site so that they can make advertising revenue that social media platforms don't. Social media platforms essentially provide a service while gaining nothing in return. Enforcing the "neighboring rights" law would be unfair to X.