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Meta threatens to pull news in California over payment law

By Nithya Bose in US Business & Employment News, posted June 2, 2023

Meta is warning it will remove news from its platforms in California if a proposed law requiring technology platforms to pay publishers is passed.

This move comes as governments worldwide consider similar legislation, and Meta is making its stance clear.

The bill is scheduled for a vote on the California assembly floor and, if approved, will proceed to the state Senate.

The deadline for passing bills this year in the legislature is September 14.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said: “If the Journalism Preservation Act passes, we will be forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers.”

This action would prevent users in California from accessing, posting, or sharing news on these platforms.

The potential passing of the California bill could influence a revision of a similar federal bill currently pending in Congress.

Under the provisions of the California bill, Meta and other major online platforms would be required to pay a "usage fee" to eligible news publishers.

The fee amount would be determined based on a percentage of the platform's advertising revenue, established through an arbitration process defined by the bill.

News publishers would then be obligated to allocate 70 percent of these fees to journalism personnel.

The California legislation aims to ensure publishers receive compensation corresponding to the value they bring to technology platforms.

Unlike the federal bill, there is no limit on the size of publishers able to participate in the effort.

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The federal bill, known as the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, enables US publishers to collectively negotiate payment from tech platforms without violating antitrust laws, but it does impose a cap on the size of participating publishers.

Meta's threat to remove news content is challenging for publishers who rely heavily on platforms like Facebook and Google as they face economic difficulties and advertiser retrenchment.

Meta has followed through on similar threats in the past, such as temporarily removing news from its Australian platform during legislative negotiations around the content payment.

Ultimately, Facebook reinstated news in Australia through an agreement with the government, resulting in modified legislation.

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