Senate Judiciary Committee approves bill to let Google, Meta's Facebook and Facebook negotiate

WASHINGTON Reuters - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to approve a bill aimed at allowing news organizations to work together to negotiate with Google and Meta's Facebook and Alphabet Inc.

It needs to go to the Senate for their approval. A similar bill is going to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill is intended to give news and broadcast organizations more clout after years of criticism that the big tech companies use their content to drive traffic and ad revenue without compensating publishers, many of which have struggled to make profits in recent years.

Some progressive groups oppose this measure, including Public Knowledge, because it favors big broadcasters like News Corp, Sinclair and Comcast NBCU, unlike other bills aimed at reining in big tech.

Two technology industry trade groups that Facebook and Google belong to are also opposed to the bill, which are the Computer Communications Industry Association and NetChoice.