Rupert Murdoch has weighed in on Facebook's attempts to improve the accuracy of the news its delivers across its global platform, suggesting the internet giant follow the model of the pay-TV industry.
"If Facebook wants to recognise 'trusted' publishers then it should pay those publishers a carriage fee similar to the model adopted by cable companies," Murdoch said in a statement provided by News Corp.
"The publishers are obviously enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services. Carriage payments would have a minor impact on Facebook's profits but a major impact on the prospects for publishers and journalists."
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Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Murdoch, who's the executive chairman of News Corp, also slammed Facebook and Google for popularising "scurrilous news sources through algorithms that are profitable for these platforms but inherently unreliable".
The media mogul said "the remedial measures that both companies have so far proposed are inadequate, commercially, socially and journalistically".
"I have no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg is a sincere person," Murdoch said, "but there is still a serious lack of transparency that should concern publishers and those wary of political bias at these powerful platforms."
News Corp's holdings include Dow Jones & Co, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and HarperCollins.
Over the past several years, the media company has been an especially outspoken critic of Google's search, arguing that Google has profited by commodifying content.
Last fall, Google ended its default "first click free" program for subscription-based websites, a move that News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson called "an important first step in recognising the value of legitimate journalism and provenance on the internet".
