The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act — the bill vehemently opposed by Facebook — has been left out of a spending bill that leaves it unlikely to be passed before the end of the year.
The bill would protect media companies to jointly negotiate with tech companies for content distribution and be free from antitrust violations in the process.
Earlier this week, Facebook threatened to remove news from its platform should the bill pass.
“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,” a statement from the social media platform read.
The News Media Alliance, according to a statement given to Deadline, called Facebook’s threat “undemocratic”.
“As the tech platforms compensate news publishers around the world, it demonstrates there is a demand and economic value for news,” the group said. “These threats were attempted before the Australian government passed a similar law to compensate news outlets, played out unsuccessfully, and ultimately news publishers were paid.”
The bill was designed to help prevent the decline of local news outlets, both print and broadcast. A bipartisan coalition including Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John Kennedy (R-LA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Ken Buck (R-CO), and David Cicilline (D-RI) sponsored the latest iteration of the bill.
