Meta-backed Facebook threatens to ban news on their platform if US Congress passes new journalism bill – Technology News, Firstpost

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Meta has warned the US Congress that it may be forced to delete news articles and ban news from its platforms, especially Facebook, if they are forced to negotiate and compensate publishers for displaying their content.

Facebook threatens to ban news on its platform if the US Congress passes a new press bill

The Meta argues that publishers and broadcasters who put their content on platforms like Facebook or Twitter do so in order to better reach and earn revenue, which benefits publishers and broadcasters, not distributors like Facebook or Twitter. Image credit: AFP

Andy Stone, Meta’s head of policy communications, said on Twitter that Facebook “will be forced to consider removing news” from Facebook if a proposed new bill, the Press Competition and Preservation Act or JCPA, passes.

The JCPA suggests that publishers can negotiate with social media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter and work on a revenue model over the distribution of their news articles or other content. While Google and Twitter haven’t reacted to the proposed new law yet, Meta-backed Facebook has threatened to block news on their platform.

Meta is currently embroiled in lawsuits in Canada and Australia, where similar laws have been proposed.

“If Congress passes an ill-conceived 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 ignore any value we bring to news outlets through increased traffic and subscription,” they write. Stone’s blog.

Meta argues that publishers and broadcasters put their content on their platforms to better reach and earn revenue. Basically, placing links to content or news benefits publishers and broadcasters, not distributors like Facebook or Twitter.

in In February of 2021, Meta stopped placing links to news and other pieces of external content On the timelines of users in Australia, after the country passed similar legislation. Facebook also banned the posts from sharing the news across its platforms. Taking things a step further, Facebook also shut down several subpages of various government agencies in the country.

After the Australian parliament amended the bill, news has been pushed back into the timelines of users in the country. The modified version allowed news publishers and platforms like Facebook to strike a deal.

The bill was first introduced by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and has received the support of more than a dozen other lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties. The JCPA aims to give social media platforms a four-year grace period during which they can negotiate with news outlets to share advertising revenue. An argument could also be made that since social media platforms already pay top creators a portion of the advertising revenue they bring in, why can’t a similar courtesy be extended to publishers and news agencies.

Legislation like this is becoming more important, as social media platforms have begun gobbling up the advertising revenue of various news sites and blogs, while using content from these sites and blogs, to keep users on the platform engaged.

The opposition, which includes more than 26 organizations including the Public Knowledge and Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Wikimedia Foundation, signed a letter to congressional leaders arguing that the bill would make anti-disinformation and disinformation efforts worse.

Cutting off news in one of Facebook’s largest markets would be a significant escalation, however, as Meta litigation in Australia has shown, the company is willing to use scorched earth tactics to avoid paying for news content around the world.



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