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Senators are pushing forward with efforts to encourage smaller news organizations to negotiate compensation from tech giants such as Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
Lawmakers on Monday released new text for the Journalism Competition and Protection Act (S. 673), which seeks to protect small newspapers that face low subscriptions and advertising revenue. The bipartisan measure, first introduced in March 2021, was on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s markup schedule earlier this month, but the panel postponed its consideration.
The legislation sponsored by Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-min.) and John Kennedy (R-LA), provides an extended eight-year safe harbor for publishers and broadcasters to collectively negotiate compensation from online platforms. During that period, which was previously set at four years, publishers could negotiate with platforms to save their content and not be held liable by antitrust laws.
Photographer: Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images
An entry from local newspaper the Star Tribune was boarded in April 2021 in Minneapolis, Minn., after protests erupted over police brutality.
representatives David Sicilian. (DR.I.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) sponsored companion legislation (HR 1735) and said in a press release that he supports the new Senate version.
In the revised bill, senators aimed to alleviate concerns raised by several public interest groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge that the law would give publishers the ability to restrict third parties from linking to external content, which would outweigh any copyright owner’s interests.
“Expanding copyright in this way undermines the free flow of information by ‘protecting’ things like facts or things related to facts. Additionally, allowing the government to decide what is news and what is not is a dangerous precedent,” Fight for the Future director Evan Greer said in a statement released on August 2. They said.
The final bill includes language that clearly states that copyright law will not be affected.
Good faith negotiations
The bill now includes requirements for forums, news publishers and broadcasters to negotiate in good faith and provides several examples of “bright line violations,” such as refusal to negotiate. The bill’s sponsors say the language ensures that all news publishers and broadcasters, including smaller outlets, are compensated.
Publishers, broadcasters, and technology platforms must offer reasonable discounts, and courts can impose penalties for violations.
The measure requires journalism providers to be transparent about the amount of annual compensation they receive under the agreement and to use those funds to support ongoing news production.
Definition of journalist
The definition of digital journalism service providers is refined in the bill to refer, among other criteria, to “entities that enable professionals to create, edit, produce and distribute original content.”
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The bill’s sponsors say a comprehensive and independent provider definition ensures that views across the ideological spectrum can be negotiated with pay. The bill prohibits technology companies from discriminating based on the size of a digital journalism provider or the views expressed in its content. If technology companies violate this prohibition, the supplier can sue them directly, known as a private right of action.
The definition of “online platform” has also been expanded to include major websites with 50 million US users and a market value of more than $550 billion or at least 1 billion monthly active users that aggregate, display, distribute or distribute content. Direct users to content from news publishers and broadcasters.
Tech companies are prohibited from retaliating against publishers by indexing content or lowering search rankings. The bill would limit compensation negotiations to individual publications with 1,500 employees or fewer, not groups.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marie Curie In Washington mcuri@bloombergindustry.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anna Yukhanov as if ayukhananov@bloombergindustry.com; Robin Mezzoli as if rmeszoly@bgov.com; Sarah Babbage as if sbabbage@bgov.com
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