Journalism Competition and Preservation Act won't be in must-pass defense bill after all

"A bill that would empower news organizations to negotiate pay from big tech companies that carry their content has been dropped from a defense package after lawmakers from both sides of the aisle raised concerns about how it would affect the news ecosystem," Bloomberg Government reports. Axios reported Tuesday morning, citing sources, that the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act had been added to a defense bill that Congress must pass before adjourning.

"Some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, pushed back against Democratic efforts to include items they view as extraneous," Bloomberg's Maria Curl reports. "GOP lawmakers have also raised concerns about the journalism bill’s effects on the types of content shown on tech platforms, and some companies and civil liberties groups have advocated against it." Meta, "which runs Facebook and Instagram, threatened to stop carrying news on its platforms if the bill passed. Despite assurances from bill sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) that the bill wouldn’t affect content moderation, some GOP lawmakers said they were concerned it would censor conservative viewpoints, while some Democrats have warned it could allow for disinformation and hate speech."

The bill would have given all but very large news organizations a temporary exemption from anti-trust laws so they could negotiate compensation with tech platforms. Klobuchar warned Tuesday that without some way for news organizations to do that, “We literally are going to lose one-third of the nation’s newspapers by the year 2025. In one quarter, Google made $66 billion in ad revenue while newspapers and little radio stations folded left and right. It is about our own national future and national security.”