Meta threatens to stop news distribution in US if new law is passed

Facebook’s parent group, Meta Platforms, said earlier today that it will be “forced to consider removing news” entirely from its platforms, if the US legislators officially adopt the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) into law. Andy Stone, global chief of Meta’s policy communications, said in a statement on behalf of Meta that the Bill in question is “ill considered”, and that it “unfairly disregards any value we provide to news outlets”.

The JCPA, introduced in US Congress in March last year, seeks to have Big Tech platforms offer some forms of payout to news publications, for using their content. In effect similar to such Bills in Australia and Canada, legislators have argued in favour of the Bill, stating that tech platforms use content from publishers to engage users and run ads, thereby earning revenue from such forms of advertisements.

Tech platforms, however, have argued back by stating that they must not be asked to pay publications for the latter’s content, since platforms such as Google and Facebook offer distribution platforms to publications — in turn driving readership to them and contributing to their revenues, rather than taking revenue away.

Stone’s full statement in this regard says, “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 subscriptions. The JCPA fails to recognise the key fact: publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line - not the other way around. No company should be forced to pay for content users don't want to see and that's not a meaningful source of revenue. Put simply: the government creating a cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidise other private entities is a terrible precedent for all American businesses.”

Meta has previously made similar demonstrations as well. Last year, when the Australian government passed a similar bill, Facebook made a similar threat to remove all news content from the platform. The platform also received flak for trying to influence policies in their favour with threats of banning content.