The owner of Facebook is threatening to block all news content on the platform. This is the result of a new law that is about to come into force in one of the US states. It’s about money, of course.
A new law passed in California could result in Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to stop posting news on their platforms. The entries are intended to hit well-known social media platforms by instructing them to pay to distribute journalistic content.
Meta warns California - new rules could be the end of the news
These provisions are included in the California Journalism Preservation Act, which is currently being negotiated by local authorities. The document contains provisions obliging large online platforms to pay the so-called link tax.
These are the fees that social networking sites like Facebook will pay for journalism services that publish posts retweeted on the platform. The subsidies are intended to support local media, which are in an increasingly difficult financial situation every year.
However, Mark Zuckerberg’s corporation does not seem willing to cooperate. In a scathing statement released by Meta, spokesman Andy Stone likens the entire collection system to a “bribery fund” whose biggest beneficiaries will be media conglomerates rather than local newspapers.
The Facebook owner also puts the question on a knife edge. The company claims that if the law goes into effect, Facebook will simply stop distributing and presenting news content to users on its platforms in its home state.
Facebook withdrawing news from the US?
This is not the first time Facebook has threatened US lawmakers with a finger. As we wrote on Wprost.pl, in December, Meta’s resistance was caused by the federal Competition and Journalists Protection Act (JCPA), which received bipartisan support in the US Congress.
“If Congress passes the ill-conceived Journalism Act as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider completely removing news from our platform,” said Andy Stone.
The new law also proposed giving traditional broadcasters and publishers (especially local media) more power to negotiate fees for content hosted on Facebook.
Source: Wprost
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