Technology giants like Facebook and Google are keeping community news publishers from making a profit on Big Tech platforms and it’s killing local journalism, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and a dozen other lawmakers who recently proposed a bipartisan bill that would allow local news providers to better negotiate with tech companies for earnings.
“Our bill supports local news organizations,” Sen. Cassidy said on Tuesday. “Now, Big Tech can use their content and local news doesn’t benefit. Let’s help the locals.”
Sen. Cassidy is one of 12 original cosponsors of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2023, S. 1094, which U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) sponsored on March 30. Among the original cosponsors who joined Sen. Cassidy in signing on to S. 1094 were U.S. Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).
If enacted, S. 1094 would protect small or independent publications from being discriminated against by digital platforms and provide a private right of action for violations of this rule, and also would prohibit covered platforms from discussing ways to “display, rank, distribute, suppress, promote, throttle, label, filter, or curate” content as means of preventing content moderation from influencing the commercial agreement, according to the text of the bill.
The measure — which would sunset eight years from the date of its enactment — also would block retaliation against eligible digital journalism providers for participating in joint negotiations or arbitration and provide a private right of action for violations of this prohibition, among several other provisions, the text says.
“Local news is facing an existential crisis from ad revenues plummeting and newsrooms across the country closing to artificial intelligence tools taking content,” said Sen. Klobuchar. “Our bipartisan legislation ensures that media outlets can band together and negotiate for fair compensation from the Big Tech companies that profit from their news content, allowing journalists to continue their critical work.”