Under a proposed U.S. bill, media companies can revoke content or place conditions on Big Tech publishing news on their platforms. Meta, Facebook's parent company, is threatening to remove information from the platform altogether if the U.S. Congress passes a bill that would allow small media outlets to band together to negotiate with Big Tech.

The News Media Alliance, a trade group representing newspaper publishers, is urging Congress to add the bill to the National Defense Authorization Act, arguing that "local newspapers cannot tolerate more use and abuse by Big Tech." If Congress does not act quickly, we risk allowing social media to become America's local newspaper."

Under the bill, which is expected to be in effect for four years, small media companies can revoke content or negotiate with online content distributors about the conditions they must meet to be allowed to share information.

On Dec. 5, Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, spoke out against the plan. He said that if the bill passes, Meta will be forced to consider removing news from the platform entirely instead of following the government-imposed negotiations, as the government has not considered the values Meta brings to news organizations through traffic and subscription rates.

"Simply put, the government creating an organization that forces one private company to subsidize other private companies is a terrible precedent for all American businesses," Stone. wrote on Twitter.

He added that supporters of the bill don't realize that publishers and broadcasters put content on platforms because "it benefits them, not the other way around."

The Australian government has also passed the News Media Bargaining Code, which took effect in March 2021. As a result, technology companies like Meta and Alphabet have had to sign more than 30 agreements with media companies, paying them for content that attracts readers and generates advertising revenue.

Info Source : CNN, Tech Mirror.

Meta threatens to remove news content from Facebook