Facebook warns of removing news from platform in US if Congress passes journalism bill

Meta (Facebook) has said that it will remove news from its feed if the US passes the bill known as Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. The decision was announced by Meta’s head of policy communication, Andy Stone, ironically enough, on Twitter. "If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we 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 subscription," read his statement. He added that the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act has failed to understand that publishers and broadcasters publish their content on Meta's platform because they benefit from the reach those platforms offer, which helps their bottomline. 

In essence, he is claiming that Meta does not need these publishers and broadcasters for its bottomline, these publishers and broadcasters need Meta for their own bottomline. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act was introduced last year by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Last year, Facebook took news off its feed when Australia passed a similar law and eventually Australia had to amend its law. The bill says that its goal is "to provide a temporary safe harbor for publishers of online content to collectively negotiate with dominant online platforms regarding the terms on which content may be distributed".

What is the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act?

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021 is a bill that was introduced in the US Senate on March 10, 2021. The journalism bill aims to provide a temporary safe harbor for publishers of online content to collectively negotiate with dominant online platforms regarding the terms on which their content may be distributed. The bill defines key terms such as "news content creator" and "online content distributor" and outlines the conditions under which negotiations between news content creators and online content distributors would be exempt from antitrust laws. The bill also includes provisions for the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a study on the state of competition in the journalism industry and to report its findings to Congress.