Meta threatens US content news if laws passes

• Meta has said that it might take news stories off of Facebook in the US.
• It is against a new law that would make it easier for news organisations to negotiate fees for content shared on Facebook.
• When a similar law was passed in Australia last year, news on Facebook had to be turned off for a short time.

Meta has said that it might take news stories off of Facebook in the US.

It is against a new law that would make it easier for news organisations to negotiate fees for content shared on Facebook.

When a similar law was passed in Australia last year, news on Facebook had to be turned off for a short time.

Meta says that their platform actually helps struggling news sites get more visitors.

It says that publishers put their work on Facebook because “it helps them make money.”

The bill, called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), was introduced in Congress by Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota. It has support from both parties.

It would give publishers and broadcasters more power to ask social media companies for a bigger cut of ad revenue as a group.

Media companies say that Meta makes a lot of money from the news articles that people share on the site.

During the pandemic, local news in particular had a hard time, while Meta made a lot of money.
But Meta says that this story is not true. It says that Meta sends people to news sources.

Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, said, “If Congress passes an ill-thought-out journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will have to think about taking all news off of our platform.”

Meta also says that sharing news on Facebook doesn’t bring in very much money.

When a similar law went into effect in Australia in March 2021, news feeds were shut down for a short time in that country.

After a lot of criticism, the company quickly changed its mind and worked out a deal with the Australian government.

Last year, a spokesperson for Meta said this about the proposed law in Australia: “The news doesn’t do much for Facebook’s business. Less than 4% of the things people see in their News Feed are news stories.”

The US law is part of a larger set of laws that try to stop Big Tech from being too powerful.

People who want the JCPA to pass say that if it doesn’t, social media will become “de facto local newspapers” in the United States.

Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project Matt Stoller said that Meta was “eating media outlets alive.”

“Meta’s attempts to use Congress as a hostage show once again why this monopoly is a threat to democracies all over the world,” he said.