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Google’s $100 million to Canada’s news industry is a small price to pay to avoid regulation
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Aug. 26, 2014, 2:53 p.m.
Audience & Social
LINK: qz.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Joshua Benton   |   August 26, 2014

Facebook too, according to this story in Quartz by Sruthijith KK.

Hundreds of journalists working at the Times of India and its sister publications have received a peculiar request from their employer: hand over your Twitter and Facebook passwords and let us post for you.

Even after you leave the company.

Under a contract unveiled to employees last week, Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd—India’s largest media conglomerate and publisher of the Times of India, Economic Times, among many other properties—told staffers they are not to post any news links on their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts. This runs counter to many social-media policies in newsrooms across the world, which often encourage journalists to share content widely.

But BCCL, as the company is known, is telling journalists that they must start a company-authorised account on various social media platforms. They also have the option of converting existing personal social media accounts to company accounts. On these, they are free to discuss news and related material. The company will possess log-in credentials to such accounts and will be free to post any material to the account without journalists’ knowledge. It is now also mandatory to disclose all personal social-media accounts held by the journalist to the company.

In other words, use social media for work — but either give us permanent control of the account or set up a new one that won’t benefit you personally after you leave.

Control of personal social media accounts continues to be one of the more interesting labor/management battle lines in news.

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