What's the news: "If [the US] 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 rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions," Meta’s head of policy communications Andy Stone said on December 6 in a statement posted on Twitter. Stone was referring to the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) introduced in August, which will allow digital news organisations to negotiate collectively and secure fair pay from platforms like Google and Facebook that regularly showcase news content. Why does this matter: Countries around the world are looking at regulations to make tech companies pay news organisations. Just a few days ago, New Zealand announced that it will pass a law to this effect, modelled after a similar law that is already in force in Australia. In India, there is an ongoing antitrust investigation looking at whether Google is unfairly using its dominance to deprive news publishers of their fair share of ad revenue. Against this backdrop, Meta's threat to remove news entirely from its platform in the US could force other countries to rethink their approach towards these regulations. Not the first time: Meta removed news content from Facebook in Australia when a similar law was passed there. This move was reversed after Australia made some amendments to its regulation that satisfied Meta. The social media platform has also threatened to remove news content in Canada if…
