(ThePatriotWire)- After significant opposition from Big Tech companies like Meta and Google, Congress this week cut the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) from the National Defense Authorization bill.
JCPA would have made temporary exceptions to antitrust law allowing media outlets to negotiate revenue-sharing deals, including receiving a cut of ad money from links to news articles that appear in search results or social media posts.
The decision to remove the provision from the defense spending bill comes after heavy resistance from Big Tech.
Earlier this week, Facebook’s parent company Meta warned that it would “consider removing news” from its platform entirely rather than comply with government-mandated negotiations for revenue-sharing deals.
In a tweet on Monday, Andy Stone, Meta’s head of policy communications, argued that “ill-considered” JCPA would force tech companies to pay for content whether or not they wanted to see it, creating a “cartel-like entity” that forced one company to subsidize others.
The tech industry groups the Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice also said they would launch extensive ad campaigns opposing the legislation.
Both groups include Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta.
Google has been a longtime vocal opponent of revenue-sharing schemes in countries like France, Australia, and Canada.
The advocacy group Public Knowledge and its allies objected to JCPA over concerns that tech companies would be forced to carry so-called “extreme” content and that the measure would favor larger media producers over smaller ones.
What happens to JCPA next remains uncertain.
Minnesota Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar, a lead proponent of the measure, said lawmakers “must” find a way to improve compensation for news online.
Media companies like The Los Angeles Times, News Corp., and others supported the measure, arguing that the legislation was necessary to counter years of declining ad revenue as news coverage has shifted online.
