Top French newspapers sue X for unpaid use of their content

Several leading French newspapers said Tuesday that they are suing social media platform X, accusing it of running their content without payment. 

The joint action against the social media company run by US billionaire Elon Musk is being led by Le Figaro, Les Echos, Le Parisien, Le Monde, Telerama, Courrier International, Huffington Post, Malesherbes Publications and Le Nouvel Obs, they said in a statement.

They accuse the site formerly known as Twitter of violating so-called neighbouring rights, which, under a 2019 European directive adopted into French law,  are due when social media platforms republish news content.

The newspapers, as well as French news agency AFP, had already asked for an emergency injunction against X, which they accuse of not negotiating.

On 24 May, a Paris tribunal agreed with the media companies, and gave X two months to provide commercial data that would allow them to assess the income it earns from their content.

The social media site "has not yet complied" with this decision, "demonstrating its continued intent to avoid its legal obligations", the newspapers said, justifying their latest suit.

Asked by AFP, X's lawyer did not comment.
Active support of Donald Trump, elected president of the United States for the second time, Musk is frequently accused of promoting disinformation on X, where he poses as an adversary of the media.

EU concerned by high disinformation rate on Musk's X platform

Bitter battles

Before Tuesday's action against 'X', around 50 other French press publishers, mainly regional, announced on 8 November that they had filed legal action against the American giant Microsoft, for similar reasons.

In all, groups such as Ouest-France or Ebra, in a series of summons filed with the Paris judicial court for "counterfeiting" are claiming several million euros in compensation.

This long-term issue of neighboring rights has poisoned relations between the French press and the internet giants for five years.

However, it experienced a lull in 2021: after a bitter battle, agreements were signed from October 2021 with Meta, owner of Facebook, and from March 2022 with Google.

But last March, the Competition Authority imposed a fine of €250 million on Google, accusing it of not having respected some of the commitments made in 2022.

France slaps Google with €250m fine over EU media rules and AI use

"Unlike Google and Meta, X/Twitter has (...) never agreed to open negotiations with French press publishers in order to respect the legal framework on copyright and related rights, and this despite several months of procedures followed by amicable follow-ups," underlined the newspapers which are pursuing X.

While the issue of neighboring rights has not been definitively resolved, media groups are facing a new challenge in remuneration for their content, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) programs.

In September, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, refused group negotiations with two French press organizations to use the content of the 800 titles they represent for a fee.

(with AFP)