Meta says it will remove all news content on Facebook

Meta has threatened to remove all news content from its sites if Congress passes a law allowing news organizations to negotiate the terms of their content distribution with big tech.

Communications director Andy Stone tweeted Monday that if Congress passes the Journalism Preservation and Competition Act, Meta would be “forced” to remove all news content from Facebook and Instagram.

The bipartisan bill would allow publications with fewer than 15,000 full-time employees to negotiate “prices, terms and conditions” under which major technology platforms can distribute their content.

Supporters of the legislation say it is necessary to counter the market dominance of Facebook and Google, though Meta executives suggest it could actually impede media revenue, as their sites provide traffic to news media websites. communication.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill on a vote of 15-7 in September, but it has yet to go before the full Senate.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act was first introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, last year.

It would create an antitrust exemption that would allow news organizations to collectively bargain for payment from companies that distribute their stories online.

Klobuchar touted the bill as a way for local media outlets to “level the playing field with online platforms,” ​​as she Announced that the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in September.

As he explained, ‘local news is facing an existential crisis, with advertising revenue falling, newspapers closing and many rural communities becoming ‘news deserts’ without access to local reports.

“To preserve strong and independent journalism, we need to ensure that news organizations can deal on a level playing field with the online platforms that have come to dominate news distribution and digital advertising.

“Our bipartisan legislation ensures that news outlets can come together and negotiate fair compensation from the big tech companies that profit from their news content, allowing journalists to continue their critical work of keeping communities informed.” said.

But Meta executives have argued that the bill misrepresents how their platform engages with local news organizations, saying that Facebook and Instagram actually provide them with more sources of revenue.

Stone doubled down on that idea in his statement Monday, when he threatened to remove news organizations from his site.

“If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platforms entirely, rather than subject ourselves to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly ignore any value we bring to the media through increased traffic and subscriptions,’ he said.

“The Journalism Preservation and Competition Act fails to recognize the key fact: publishers and broadcasters place their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line, not the other way around,” he said.

“No company should be forced to pay for content that users do not want to see and that is not a significant source of revenue,” he continued.

“Simply put, the government creating a cartel-like entity that requires a private company to subsidize other private entities is a terrible precedent for all American business.”

Meta has previously fought similar legislation in Australia, at one point restricting news sharing on its platform to much backlash. Poynter reports.

He has also threatened to shut down news sharing on Facebook and Instagram in response to proposed legislation in Canada.

The US bill is also facing backlash from both conservative and progressive Republicans.

On the right, conservatives have raised concerns that it could lead to further censorship of Republican voices, with Senator Mike Lee suggesting that it could foster backroom collusion between media organizations and Big Tech.

‘We are authorizing here two of the entities that are perhaps most hostile to conservatives; newspapers and Big Tech,’ said the Utah Republican Breitbart.

Meanwhile, on the progressive side, the Free Press Action Fund fears the bill will “rescue” executives who have benefited from layoffs and local media consolidation.

‘The top priority of the media giants that would most likely collude in the proposed negotiations is to maximize their profits, not to serve the interests and needs of [the] people’, the organization he said in a statement in September.

But supporters of the bill say it is necessary to promote journalism in the United States and curb the dominance of big tech companies like Meta and Google.

“Our industry is in jeopardy,” Danielle Coffey, executive vice president of the News Media Alliance, a group representing news organizations, told Poynter.

“We have these two monopolies that are strangling us because we can’t receive the revenue that would benefit consumers through more quality journalistic production,” he said, adding: “The legislation allows us to come together collectively.”

The bill follows similar legislation passed in Australia last year, which has resulted in news organizations both large and small being paid more than $140 million by social networking sites and Google.

Now the New Zealand government is ready to do the same, announcing over the weekend that he will introduce a law that requires Google and Meta to pay media companies for local news content.

“New Zealand’s media, particularly small, regional and community newspapers, are struggling to remain financially viable as online advertising increases,” Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson said in a statement.

“It’s critical that those who benefit from your news content actually pay for it.”