Meta, the parent company of Facebook, warned on Monday to remove content from its platform if the United States Congress reinforces a measure that would make it easier for news organizations to deal collectively with giant tech companies.

According to informed sources, legislators are contemplating including the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) as a defense measure that must be passed to support the ailing local media sector, Reuters reported.

In a tweet, Meta representative Andy Stone stated that if the bill was implemented, the firm would have to decide between eliminating content and complying with government-mandated negotiations that unjustly discount the value that social media provides to news publishers via increased traffic and subscriptions.

"If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether," Stone said.

Additionally, Meta contends that a little portion of Facebook's income comes from news sharing.

Moreover, he said, the idea ignores the fact that publications and broadcasters post their material to the site because this enhances their business lines, "not the other way around."

Publications Urge US Congress To Act Immediately

Newspaper publishers' business group, the News Media Alliance wants Congress to include the measure in the defense bill, stating that local papers cannot afford more years of Big Tech's mistreatment.

"If Congress does not act quickly, we risk enabling social media to become America's de facto local newspaper," the group noted.

The JCPA has faced fierce opposition from the tech sector, but it has also drawn criticism from more than two dozen civil society organizations that often disagree with Big Tech on policy issues. 

On Monday, civic groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Knowledge, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, urged the US Congress to reject the local media proposal because it would "create an ill-advised antitrust exemption for publishers and broadcasters" and does not ensure finances acquired via bargaining or arbitration would ever be given to journalists.

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The organizations also cautioned that the JCPA might worsen misinformation by permitting news websites to sue tech platforms for lowering a story's reach and frightening them into not filtering objectionable or inaccurate material, as reported by CNN.

Additionally, the letter warned that the JCPA would wind up unjustly benefiting big media organizations against independent, local, and small media outlets, who have been worst hurt by the decline in digital ad income.

Social Media Eating Up Local Traditional Media Outlets

Facebook news feeds were briefly taken down in Australia due to similar legislation that came into effect there in March 2021.

Following a widespread outcry, the business immediately shifted its position and negotiated an agreement with the Australian government.

A representative for Meta commented on the proposed law in Australia last year that Facebook gets little commercial benefit from the news as the portion of actual news content that users see in their News Feed is less than four percent, per BBC.

The US legislation is a component of a bigger body of regulations designed to counter Big Tech's hegemony. If the JCPA is not passed, social media will allegedly replace local newspapers as America's primary news source, according to local publications.

According to Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, Meta is "eating alive" media organizations and its attempts to intimidate US Congress show how the big tech's "monopoly" threatens democracy not just in America but also in other countries.

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