Facebook announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement with a group of French publishers to pay for links to their news pieces shared by Facebook users.
The Alliance de la Presse d’Information Generale, which represents 300 French publishers, has signed a licensing agreement with Facebook to “increase the quality of online information for Internet users and publishers.”
The financial details were kept under wraps.
Facebook also announced that a French version of its Facebook News product would be available in January, allowing the company’s publishers to publish their articles.
The license agreement is the outcome of a larger campaign by governments in Europe and worldwide to compel Facebook and other social media giants to compensate content providers. Governments have reacted to news organizations’ allegations that internet businesses are enriching themselves at their expense by selling advertising linked to their stories and without sharing revenue.
France was the first of the European Union’s 27 member states to ratify the bloc’s 2019 copyright directive, which lays out a framework for publishers and news organizations to reach license agreements with online platforms.
