United States: Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc has threatened to remove news from its platform if the US Congress passes a new law that would give news organizations greater power to negotiate fees for content shared on Facebook.
The lawmakers are planning to add the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to an annual defense bill that must be passed in order to help the struggling local news industry.
The legislation was introduced in Congress by Minnesota Senator Ms. Amy Klobuchar and has bipartisan support.
Meta spokesperson Mr.Andy Stone tweeted that 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.”
The News Media Alliance, a trade group representing newspaper publishers, is forcing Congress to include the bill to the defense bill, claiming 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 law enables publishers and broadcasters greater autonomy to collectively bargain with social media companies for a larger share of ad revenue.
Meta justified their stand by claiming that their platform can support struggling news outlets by providing them increased traffic.
The tech giant added that publishers put their content on Facebook because “it benefits their bottom line.”
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