Facebook warns of removing news from platform in US if Congress passes journalism bill

Meta (Facebook) has said that it will remove news from its feed if US passes bill known as Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. decision was announced by Meta’s he of policy communication, Andy Stone, ironically enough, on Twitter. "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 altoger rar than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscription," re his statement. He ded that  Journalism Competition and Preservation Act has failed to understand that publishers and brocasters publish ir content on Meta's platform because y benefit from reach those platforms offer, which helps ir bottomline. 

In essence, he is claiming that Meta does not need se publishers and brocasters for its bottomline, se publishers and brocasters need Meta for ir own bottomline.  Journalism Competition and Preservation Act was introduced last year by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Last year, Facebook took news off its feed when Australia passed a similar law and eventually Australia h to amend its law. bill says that its goal is "to provide a temporary safe harbor for publishers of online content to collectively negotiate with dominant online platforms regarding terms on which content may be distributed".

What is Journalism Competition and Preservation Act?

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021 is a bill that was introduced in US Senate on March 10, 2021. journalism bill aims to provide a temporary safe harbor for publishers of online content to collectively negotiate with dominant online platforms regarding terms on which ir content may be distributed. bill defines key terms such as "news content creator" and "online content distributor" and outlines conditions under which negotiations between news content creators and online content distributors would be exempt from antitrust laws. bill also includes provisions for Federal Tre Commission to conduct a study on state of competition in journalism industry and to report its findings to Congress.