Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, stated on Tuesday that if Congress approves laws mandating digital companies to compensate news organizations for their content, it will be “forced to consider” removing news content from its platform.
If the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act is approved, news organizations can bargain collectively with social media platforms about the conditions under which their content will appear on their websites.
In a statement posted to Twitter by spokesman Andy Stone, Meta stated that it would prefer to remove news off its platforms than “subject to government-mandated discussions that unfairly devalue the value we bring to news outlets.”
Menlo Park, California-based Meta, has previously taken similar stances. After Australia passed legislation requiring tech companies to compensate publishers for using their news pieces, it barred news from its platform last year.
Later, it signed agreements with Australian publishers.
The legislation, according to the bill’s proponent, Minnesota Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar, only enables news organizations to team up to bargain better rates for their journalistic material with “the biggest enterprises the world has ever known.”
She claimed that while newspapers and small radio stations were closing left and right, Google generated $66 billion in ad revenue in a single quarter. “All we’re doing is attempting to get material at a fair price,”
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