Facebook Agrees To Pay French Newspapers

Facebook has signed a copyright deal with newspaper publishers in another country – this time with newspapers in France.

According to Reuters, Facebook on Thursday signed a preliminary copyright agreement with a French news publishers’ lobby group called Alliance de la presse d’information generale (APIG).

This give Facebook a way for it to pay for news content on its social networking platforms in France, by using news content from the likes Le Monde, Le Figaro and Les Echos, as well as a number of regional newspapers.

French deal

Reuters reported that Facebook’s agreement with APIG takes the form of a “term sheet” of a few pages, and comes after months of talks with APIG.

The preliminary deal lists the main principles of the accord and the copyright fees due to each of its members, a source told Reuters.

The “term sheet” will soon be followed by a framework agreement that will allow APIG’s members to sign individual licences with Facebook, the source said.

There will be two types of licences, the source reportedly said: one for the use of news content on Facebook’s main platform and one for its upcoming Facebook News service, which will curate stories from a select set of publications.

Facebook News will be launched in France in 2022, the US social networking giant reportedly said.

Facebook has already signed a licence with Le Monde over the use of the newspaper’s content, the head of Le Monde group Louis Dreyfus said.

No detail was given of the exact amount agreed by Facebook and the APIG.

Other deals

It should be remembered that Facebook has already signed deals with some Australian media companies a few months ago, after it had already struck deals with News Corp and Seven West earlier in the year.

It has also signed deals with publishers for news content in other parts of the world, including the UK in January 2021.

Facebook in February had announced it would invest $1 billion for content from news publishers, for its news service.