Meta threatens to pull news in California over publisher compensation
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is threatening to pull news links from Facebook and Instagram in California if state lawmakers move forward with the California Journalism Preservation Act.
The bill, which is up for a vote in the state assembly on Thursday, would require social media companies that make money from online ads - via the distribution of news articles - to pay a "journalism usage fee" to publishers. In turn, the latter would have to spend at least 70% of the fee revenue on their newsrooms.
"We will be forced to remove news rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers," Meta (META) Communications Director Andy Stone wrote in a statement.
Meta (META) responded in similar fashion after a related proposal was tabled in Congress in December, as well as in Canada, and briefly blocked news links in Australia before brokering a deal with the government. Among the amendments was a clause stipulating that digital platforms and news groups would be required to mediate for two months before subjecting them to mandatory arbitration.
The government in Canberra also agreed to take into account existing commercial agreements and give digital platforms a month's notice before reaching any final decision on the law's application.
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