Meta Platforms (META) is threatening to remove U.S. news from Facebook should a law come into effect that gives media outlets more power to negotiate fees for their content.
Facebook briefly suspended news on its Australian social media platform last year when a similar law passed in that country.
Meta Platforms has argued that it shouldn’t be subjected to such legislation as its Facebook platform provides increased traffic to struggling news outlets. The company led by Mark Zuckerberg says publishers put their content on Facebook because it benefits them financially.
The legislation, known as the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act” was introduced in Congress by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and has bipartisan support among Democrats and Republicans.
The legislation would give news publishers and broadcasters greater powers to collectively bargain with social media companies for a larger share of advertising revenue.
Media companies claim that Meta Platforms, and others, generates huge sums of money from news articles shared on social media sites.
Meta Platforms spokesperson Andy Stone said in a media interview that: “If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill… we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether.”
A similar Australian law took effect in March 2021 and led to a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in that nation. However, Meta Platforms quickly reversed course in Australia after it receive negative publicity.
Meta eventually negotiated a deal with the Australian government, the terms of which have not been made public.
The U.S. legislation is part of a larger set of laws aimed at tackling the growing dominance of so called “Big Tech.”
Meta Platforms’ stock is down 64% this year and trading at $122.43 U.S. per share.
