Le Figaro, Le Monde and other French newspapers are suing X in the context of neighboring rights.
The hatchet is unearthed in the neighboring rights issue: after the regional press against Microsoft, several other newspapers, including Le Figaro, Le Monde and Le Parisien, are taking legal action against the social network use their content without paying.
Announced Tuesday in a press release, this joint action is carried out by Les Échos and Le Parisien (which belong to the group of the same name), the Le Monde group (Le Monde, Télérama, Courrier International, Le Huffington Post, Le Nouvel Obs and Malesherbes Publications , publisher of La Vie) and Le Figaro.
They are suing the social network, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, before the Paris court.
Before this action on the merits, these newspapers, as well as the AFP for its part, had summoned X and its French subsidiary for summary proceedings (an emergency procedure), accusing it of not wanting to negotiate.
On May 24, the summary judge of the Paris judicial court ruled in their favor. He ordered the social network to provide them, within two months, with a series of commercial data allowing them to assess the income it earns from their content.
X/Twitter “did not (…) comply” to this decision so far, “thus demonstrating its invariable desire to evade its legal obligations”denounced the newspapers to justify their new legal action. X’s lawyer did not comment.
“Additional step”
Rights related to copyright were established for digital platforms by a 2019 European directive. They allow newspapers, magazines or press agencies to be remunerated when their content is reused by digital giants. “A conviction of Twitter (…) as part of this new procedure on the merits would constitute an additional step in the implementation of legal provisions on neighboring rights”estimated the newspapers pursuing X.
Active support of Donald Trump, elected President of the United States for the second time, Elon Musk is frequently accused of promoting disinformation on X, where he poses as an adversary of the media. Before this action against X, around fifty other French press publishers, mainly regional, announced on November 8 that they had filed legal action against the American giant Microsoft.
In total, several million euros are claimed by titles of groups like Ouest-France or Ebra (East-Bourgogne-Rhône-Alpes), in a series of summons filed with the Paris judicial court for “counterfeiting”.
Artificial intelligence
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.
Some were framework agreements concluded with collective groups of newspapers, the members of which were then each able to negotiate directly with the platforms. Others were individual agreements. The framework agreements are currently being renegotiated.
But last March, the matter once again took a conflicting turn: the Competition Authority imposed a fine of 250 million euros on Google, accusing it of not having respected some of the commitments made in 2022.
“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 reminders”underlined the newspapers which are pursuing X.
While the issue of neighboring rights has not even yet been definitively resolved, the media 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.
x twitter Le Parisien Le Monde Le Figaro French newspapers
