Facebook owner Meta may remove news from platform if U.S. Congress passes media bill

by | Dec 7, 2022

The idea of removing news from your Facebook, or other social media feed, is something that was argued in Australia about a year and a half ago. This week, it looked like the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act was headed to be included in a defense budgeting bill. News groups argue that their industry is dying, so everyone should pay up for posting links to their sites. Folks like Facebook argue that the link generates the traffic to the site in the first place, and delivers potential revenue sources to the news media. The ongoing process is being argued outside of Congress with direct talks between many of the news media sources, and the many social media platforms.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc on Monday threatened to remove news from its platform if the U.S. Congress passes a proposal aimed at making it easier for news organizations to negotiate collectively with companies like Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook. Sources briefed on the matter said lawmakers are considering adding the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to a must-pass annual defense bill as way to help the struggling local news industry. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone in a tweet said the company would be forced to consider removing news if the law was passed “rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions.”

Found at finance.yahoo.com