PARIS — French press publishers are accusing Elon Musk of using new features on X, formerly known as Twitter, to avoid paying for copyright-protected content.
X is expected to remove headlines and text from news stories shared on the platform, according to Fortune. Musk confirmed the move and claimed the reason behind it was “aesthetics.” In France, however, representatives for press publishers see it as a “coarse attempt to evade neighboring rights.”
The EU’s copyright directive allows the press industry to seek remuneration when its content is displayed on online platforms. Canada drafted similar, albeit stricter, rules forcing Meta and Google to pay news publishers for content, leading to an ongoing tug-of-war with the U.S. tech giants.
In France, after years of tense talks, media companies eventually inked deals with Google and Meta — but not Twitter.
Twitter has long argued, even before the world’s richest man took over, that the company is not included in the EU copyright reform’s scope. Over the summer, several leading publications, including Agence France-Presse and Le Monde, sued the platform for lack of compliance with the copyright rules.
After news of the AFP’s complaint broke, Elon Musk openly spoke against the very principle of the neighboring rights. “This is bizarre. They want us to pay *them* for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don’t!?” he tweeted at the time.
Musk’s decision to scrap headlines and texts is “not surprising,” Emmanuel Parody, secretary-general of content providers lobby GESTE, told POLITICO. By doing so, the online platform effectively “removes the last things” that would have ensured it’s covered by the copyright rules.
Alexandre Léchenet contributed to this report.