Rupert Murdoch takes another swing at Google and Facebook, seeks reforms

Murdoch for years has criticised Google for taking the publisher's news articles without compensation and Facebook with failing to adequately reward publishers

Rupert Murdoch renewed his attacks on Google and Facebook during News Corp’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, accusing the tech giants of trying to silence conservative voices and calling for "significant reform."

The Silicon Valley companies are favourite targets for Murdoch, 90, who for years has criticised Google for taking the publisher's news articles without compensation and Facebook with failing to adequately reward publishers. The public flogging continued, despite News Corp winning concessions from both companies, which earlier this year agreed to pay for the publisher content in Australia.

"For many years our company has been leading the global debate about Big Digital," said Murdoch. "What we have seen in the past few weeks about the practices at Facebook and Google surely reinforces the need for significant reform." Murdoch accused Facebook employees of trying to silence conservative voices, and noted "a similar pattern of selectivity" in Google search results.

Google to pay AFP for content sharing

Google has agreed to pay news wire Agence France-Presse for the use of its content, its first deal following a fine from the French regulator over its approach to negotiating compensation for news organisations, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. The amount wasn’t disclosed. The news agency reported that the deal would cover content in all European Union countries for five years. Google and a group of French press titles excluding AFP struck an initial agreement in January. However, the French competition authority fined Google $593 mn in July for having failed to negotiate “in good faith” with news outlets. Google appealed the fine.