Meta threatens to pull news out if US Congress passes new law

96
2
Meta threatens to pull news out if US Congress passes new law

If the US Congress passes a proposal that makes it easier for news organizations to negotiate collectively with companies like Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL.O, Google and Facebook, the parent of Meta Platforms Inc. has threatened to remove news from its platform.

Sources briefed on the matter said that lawmakers are considering adding the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to a must-pass annual defense bill to help the struggling local news industry.

Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said in a tweet that the company would have to consider removing news if the law was passed rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregards any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions. He said that the proposal doesn't recognize that publishers and broadcasters put content on the platform because it benefits their bottom line, not the other way around. The News Media Alliance, a trade group representing newspaper publishers, is urging Congress to add the bill to the defense bill, arguing that local papers can't afford to endure several more years of Big Tech abuse, and time to take action is dwindling. If Congress does not act soon, we risk allowing social media to become America's de facto local newspaper. More than two dozen organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Knowledge and the Computer Communications Industry Association urged Congress not to approve the local news bill saying it would create an ill-advised antitrust exemption for publishers and broadcasters, and said it wouldn't require funds gained through negotiation or arbitration will even be paid to journalists. READ MORE: Anti-China bias reinforced by US social media giants.

A similar Australian law, which took effect in March 2021 after talks with the big tech firms resulted in a shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country, has largely worked, a government report said.

Since the News Media Bargaining Code took effect, various tech firms including Meta and Alphabet have signed more than 30 deals with media outlets, compensating them for content that generates clicks and advertising dollars, according to the report.