News of the Cyber World

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Meta Threatens to Pull All News From Platform If Congress Passes Media–Big Tech Bargaining Bill

The legislation was introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in March 2021 and would effectively remove some existing antitrust laws; making it easier for small news publishers to collectively negotiate with tech giants such as Facebook for a larger share of digital advertising profits.

JCPA has received backing from dozens of democratic and Republican lawmakers but not everyone agrees with the bill.

Andy Stone, Meta’s head of policy communications, wrote on Twitter on Monday that the legislation is “ill-considered”, and noted that Congress is reportedly considering passing the bill as part of its annual defense bill in December.

Stone said that if lawmakers were to pass the bill, Meta “will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions.”

He added that the bill fails to recognize that publishers and broadcasters put content on the platform because “it benefits their bottom line – not the other way around.”

Additionally, Stone said the bill would set a “terrible precedent for all American businesses” because it would create a “cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidize other private entities.”

This is not the first time that Meta has issued such a threat; last year a similar Australian law, which went into effect in March, saw Facebook briefly block all news on its feeds in the country. The tech giant later reversed its decision after holding talks with the Australian government.