How much do Facebook, Google earn from India? Here's what BJP lawmaker says

New Delhi, Dec 14: BJP leader Sushil Modi in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday said that the tech giants like Facebook and Google take away around 75 per cent of the total digital advertising market in India and demanded for setting up of an independent regulatory body to ensure that the companies share advertisement revenue adequately with traditional media houses.

He claimed that Rs 9,326 crore goes to Facebook and Rs 13,887 crore to Google, which adds to Rs 23,213 crore, from a digital advertisement from India.

"They earn a share higher than the combined revenue of the top 10 listed traditional media companies (which stands) at Rs 8,396 crore," Modi said, and added that Facebook sends 90 per cent of its gross advertisement revenue to its global subsidiary and Google India pays 87 per cent to its parent entity," he said in Rajya Sabha.

Hence, he demanded in the Rajya Sabha for setting up of an independent regulatory body for big tech giants like Facebook and Google to ensure they share advertisement revenue adequately with traditional media houses for using their content.

"The issue is that these big tech firms are getting rich at the expense of traditional media," he said. Modi claimed that the tech giants do not pay traditional news platform adequately, despite making huge money by displaying their journalistic content on their platforms.

He said the regulatory body should also ensure that such entities allocate adequate budget for content moderation activities to check hate speeches and fake news.

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According to him, there are mechanisms to share revenue with the traditional media is in place like Australia, Germany and France. He further alleged that Facebook is undermining the safety of the largest user base of 34 crore users in India.

"It does not flag problematic content like fake misinformation and hate speech," he asserted. Modi made a strong case for India forming an independent regulatory body that ensures a legislative framework to "oversee the activities of these big tech companies" and ensure such firms alloca