The US is preparing to approve a new law, which is particularly relevant to Meta. The law, called the “Journalism Competition and Protection Act”, basically provides for newspapers and other news organizations to get a ‘larger share’ of online advertising revenue.
However, the new law was apparently not received very favorably by Meta. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp shared a direct threat to the US government against the adoption of the law.
“If the law passes, we will completely remove the news”
Facebook Policy Communications Director Andy Stone offered the company’s statement on the law as follows:
“If Congress passes an ill-conceived journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will have to consider removing news from our platform altogether, rather than succumbing to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions. ”
However, Meta likened the study of the law to the government’s attempt to create a ‘cartel-like formation’. However, the company emphasized that no company can be forced to pay for content that users do not want to see.
But why did this bill make so much noise?
Today, publishers only individually negotiate with companies like Google and Meta to monetize their content. But the new law paves the way for publishers to come together and put pressure on companies collectively.
Publishers, on the other hand, have been complaining about their advertising revenues from platforms in recent years. According to data from the United States Census Bureau, publishers’ advertising revenue lost 52% between 2002 and 2020.
Of course, this loss of income affected local and small-scale broadcasting organizations the most. Today, many local/small publishers are on the verge of bankruptcy because they cannot generate revenue. So these publishers want the law passed in order to generate revenue.
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