Facebook and Instagram threaten to remove news from their platforms over newly proposed legislation

Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, have hit out at a proposed law that would allow newspapers to bargain collectively with social media companies for additional ad revenue in exchange for content.

Meta expressed their opposition to the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), saying that it would create a “cartel-like entity.”

The legislation was introduced by Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar and has gained bipartisan support.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said Monday that Congress was considering attaching the law to the annual must-pass defense authorization bill. Stone said that Meta would be “forced to consider removing news” from their platforms if the act were to be signed into law.

“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,” Stone said.

He added that JCPA “unfairly disregard[s] any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions.”

“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 subsidize other private entities is a terrible precedent for all American businesses,” Stone said.

Sen. Klobuchar said in September that the aim of the law is to “level [the] playing field with the online platforms that have come to dominate news distribution and digital advertising.”

“Our bipartisan legislation ensures media outlets will be able to band together and negotiate for fair compensation from the Big Tech companies that profit from their news content, allowing journalists to continue their critical work of keeping communities informed,” she said at the time.