EANA: Meta Should Remove Website-crawling Clause from Its New Commercial Terms

Bern, 24 October (TASR) - The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) has joined publishers, broadcasters and other media organisations and associations across Europe and beyond in calling on Meta to remove a website-crawling provision from its new Commercial Terms and replace it with terms that respect copyright, TASR has learnt from EANA's press release published on Friday (23 October). According to EANA, postponing the implementation of the terms until 20 November should lead to genuine dialogue and coherent solutions that won't force news media organisations off Meta's platforms. "This is not only a news agency issue", stated EANA Secretary General Alexandru Ion Giboi, adding that the "new terms will have damaging effects across the entire news media ecosystem". "Meta would have the content of every news media organisation that uses Meta's platforms served on a platter. That means journalists worldwide would practically work for Meta; not to mention smaller media outlets that are already struggling enough. Our content isn't only what funds our business, it's a lifeline for communities to have access to trustworthy information, and it costs money to produce. It's nonsense that Meta considers that news media can just give that away," he stated. Giboi added that if trustworthy news media organisations are pushed off Meta's platforms, where a great deal of public conversation takes place, the space that they leave will certainly not remain empty. "It will be filled by bad actors with unverified and manipulative content," stated Giboi, adding that EANA is open to engaging in constructive dialogue with Meta and with all platforms on licensing models for the use of news content. EANA can see news media organisations, including among its own members, opposing this move by Meta, and it fully understands and supports their position. "No media organisation should have to choose between reaching its audience and protecting its rights. The fact that this choice is being forced on news media is in itself the clearest sign that these terms are not right," states EANA's press release. According to EANA, any future terms should include a binding commitment to honour robots.txt and other machine-readable rights reservations, and to treat any access to journalistic content as a separate, opt-in, licensed and remunerated arrangement. The alliance also urges the European Commission and national competition and media authorities to act in light of EU copyright, competition and digital markets rules before the terms enter into force. EANA is a long-standing professional organisation representing European news agencies. Its mission is to formulate, coordinate and jointly address the challenges of agency journalism in a fast-evolving market, legislative and technological landscape, including in matters relating to copyright. TASR is one of its members along with over 30 other agencies. jrg/df