Facebook, Google ‘should face crackdown from NEW watchdog’ designed to fix ‘uneven balance of power’
Tech monopolies could face a new crackdown on their power
TECH titans like Facebook and Google should be regulated to restrain their power over online news.
The powerful firms should help users spot fake news and "nudge people towards reading news of high quality", according to a new government report.
It would mean Facebook and Google would have to "give more prominence to public interest news", to boost trust in the media and public engagement in politics.
The Cairncross review, commissioned by Theresa May, is a wide-ranging report into the future of news in the UK.
It says tech companies should be overseen by a news watchdog to create a "level playing field".
This body could work like the Arts Council, channelling public and private funds to "those parts of the industry it deemed most worthy of support".
Undertaken by former journalist Dame Frances Cairncross, the review said a watchdog could tackle "the uneven balance of power" between news publishers and the online platforms that distribute them.
Platforms like Google and Facebook currently take a huge chunk of online advertising funds, making it difficult for traditional publishers, such as newspapers, to compete, the review said.
It added that investigative journalism and "democracy reporting" – such as local courts and councils – are most at risk from the monopolies held by tech companies.
The review made a number of recommendations, including tax relief to boost local journalism.
It also suggested broadcaster regulator Ofcom should investigate the market impact of BBC News.
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which campaigns for media freedom, welcomed the findings but warned of the dangers of government-imposed regulation of the media.
Executive director Ian Murray said: "It is extremely gratifying that Dame Frances and her panel have underscored the need to protect and indeed reinvigorate the reporting of local democracy and open justice, areas which have suffered and continue to suffer as the industry contracts.
"Crucial to all of the recommendations for what is really state support for the local media industry in particular, are the report’s insistence that bodies such as the proposed Institution are free from political and other interference in deciding what constitutes public interest news worth supporting.
"The press in the UK has not fought long and hard to maintain its independence and freedom to then find itself regulated by state-appointed bodies, no matter how well meaning was their original creation."
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