Facebook has threatened to remove all news from it’s social media platform if a journalism bill is passed by Congress.
The legislative branch is considering the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would give antitrust exemptions to allow media companies to “collectively negotiate with online content distributors” like social media companies.
In a statement, the social media platform revealed its stance is against the passage of the bill.
“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,” the statement read.
“The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act fails to recognize the key fact: publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line – not the other way around,” the statement continued. “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.
