Agence France-Presse (AFP) said on Wednesday it filed a lawsuit in Paris against Elon Musk's X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, accusing it of failing to discuss potential payment for the distribution of the news agency's content.
France in 2019 enacted a copyright rule dubbed "neighbouring rights" that compels large online platforms to open talks with publishers seeking remuneration for news.
"Agence France-Presse has expressed its concerns over the clear refusal from Twitter (recently rebranded as ‘X’) to enter into discussions regarding the implementation of neighbouring rights for the press," the news agency said in a statement.
Musk criticised AFP's move in an X social media post.
"This is bizarre. They want us to pay *them* for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don't!?" he said.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2021, France's antitrust watchdog fined Alphabet's Google 500 million euros for failing to comply with orders on how to conduct talks with the country's news publishers.
Since then, Google has committed to resolving the dispute and has announced deals with AFP and several other leading French news organisations. Meta Platforms' Facebook too has signed agreements with some French publishers.
The UAE ranked first among Arab countries and fifth globally for the quality of its roads, according to the Travel and Tourism Development Index 2024 issued by the World Economic Forum.
The Federal Regulation for Energy Management in Industrial Facilities, the first regulation of its kind in the industrial sector, which aims to reduce energy consumption and accelerate decarbonisation, was a focus of discussions on day one of the "Make It in The Emirates" (MIITE) forum in Abu Dhabi.
Investopia, in partnership with EMIR, an emerging market research specialist, held the first meeting of the ‘Next50’ initiative, which aims to promote dialogue and knowledge sharing among leading companies in the UAE, and stimulate investment in emerging sectors in the private sector.
The third edition of the "Make It in the Emirates Forum", organised by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) and ADNOC Group, began on Monday in Abu Dhabi.