Azerbaijan’s media outlets are beginning to face a serious financial squeeze, driven by global technology giants.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and Google have captured almost the entire advertising market in Azerbaijan. Thanks to their technological capabilities, these platforms can keep advertising rates low, leaving Azerbaijani media outlets with fewer advertisers. At the same time, global tech giants use content produced by Azerbaijani media without asking permission or paying for it.
This problem is not unique to Azerbaijan; it affects media markets worldwide. In Canada, for example, Google and Meta together control around 80 percent of the entire advertising market. Researchers at Columbia University have estimated how much news journalism should be worth to tech giants under a fair system. According to their calculations, Google and Meta should pay U.S. publishers between $11.9 billion and $13.9 billion annually. This is far more than they pay at present. Media outlets in Australia, Canada and Europe are closing or cutting staff for much the same reasons as those affecting the Azerbaijani press.
However, some countries have already found ways to address the problem. In 2019, the European Union introduced so-called related rights for publishers, requiring platforms to pay when they use their content. France was the first country to apply this provision, forcing Google to sign an agreement with an alliance of French publishers. The company attempted to evade its obligations, prompting French authorities to impose fines: 500 million euros in 2021 for failing to negotiate with news publishers in good faith, followed by another 250 million euros in March 2024 for failing to meet its commitments.
In 2021, Australia adopted a code requiring platforms to negotiate with media outlets. As a result, Google and Meta signed more than 30 agreements worth 200–250 million Australian dollars annually. Australia is now going further by introducing a levy on platforms that refuse to pay. Canada adopted its Online News Act in 2023, under which Google now pays Canadian media outlets 100 million Canadian dollars annually.
It is time for Azerbaijani media to take action. The main lesson from France is that publishers lose when they act individually. During negotiations with Google, independent outlets there openly acknowledged that the company had taken advantage of their fragmentation. In 2024, 32 media groups from 13 European countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, joined forces and filed a 2.1 billion euro lawsuit against Google in a court in Amsterdam. This demonstrates that media outlets in even relatively small countries can join forces to defend their rights in foreign courts.
Azerbaijani media outlets, the Press Council, the Media Development Agency and professional journalists’ associations need to start working together. The priorities should include calculating the actual losses, securing publishers’ rights in legislation, negotiating collectively with platforms and, if necessary, taking legal action, including in foreign courts. If global technology giants pay publishers in other countries, there is no reason Azerbaijani journalism should continue to fill their pockets for free.
