The biggest news agencies of Europe have accused the Internet Giants , Google and Facebook of stealing  news from the media news contents .The CEOs of most of the European news agencies  including France’s Agence France-Presse, Britain’s Press Association and Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur have asked the European Parliament to update copyright law in the EU to help address a this grievous issue. This is posing a threat to the advertising revenue of the media agencies.

European Parliament lawmakers are already planning to make a new copyright law this month that will make the internet companies pay more for the content they use from the agencies  such as news, music or movies. US tech companies had strongly objected to this move but then since the media agencies are strongly objecting to free news service it’s likely to take place.

The joint statement from the agencies, which are major suppliers of news, photos and video, said that Facebook reported revenues of $40 billion (€34 billion) in 2017 and profits of $16 billion, while Google made $12.7 billion on sales of $110 billion.

The agencies also asked about the internet giants irresponsibility especially when they are making good money out of the creative content.The column marks a new lobbying effort by media groups, backed by artists such as Paul McCartney, to sway European lawmakers as they prepare for a second vote on September 12.

European Parliament is preparing the law based on two articles .The first is Article 13, which would make platforms like Google-owned YouTube legally liable for copyrighted material to prevent content producers from seeing their work posted without pay.The second is Article 11, which would create a so-called “neighboring right” meaning that newspapers, magazines and news agencies would have to be paid when Google or other websites link to their stories.

Critics argue that the new law will lead to blanket censorship by tech platforms because of copyright problems, reducing their role as a hub for creativity, especially YouTube. They say it would also restrict the usage of memes and remixes by everyday Internet users who often use content without securing the rights.

The initiative by the media agencies was signed by the heads of TT in Sweden, STT in Finland, Belgium’s Belga and APA from Austria, as well as other media groups across the European continent.