Facebook owner Meta may remove news from platform if US Congress passes media bill
- Facebook said proposal fails to recognise that media firms put content on the platform because ‘it benefits their bottom line – not the other way around’
- Australia passed a similar law in March 2021 after talks with Big Tech firms led to a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country
Sources briefed on the matter said lawmakers are considering adding the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to a must-pass annual defence bill as way to help the struggling local news industry.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone in a tweet said the company would be forced to consider removing news if the law was passed “rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions”.
He added the proposal fails to recognise 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 proposal to the defence bill, arguing that “local papers cannot afford to endure several more years of Big Tech’s use and 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,” the alliance said.
More than two dozen groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Knowledge and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, on Monday urged Congress not to approve the local news bill, saying it would “create an Ill-advised antitrust exemption for publishers and broadcasters” and argued the bill does not require “funds gained through negotiation or arbitration will even be paid to journalists”.