The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared legislation that would give news outlets a reprieve from antitrust laws and allow them to band together to negotiate agreements with tech platforms. The Journ…
cleared legislation that would give news outlets a reprieve from antitrust laws and allow them to band together to negotiate agreements with tech platforms.“We actually share the view that this is not about content. This is about negotiating prices,” said one of the bill’s key co-sponsors, Sen.She said the goal of the bill is to “allow local news organizations to get compensation when major titans, monopolies, like Facebook and Google, access their content.
She proposed an amendment that clarifies that the bill’s focus is solely on compensation for news outlets, not over content. That alleviated concerns of Sen. Ted Cruz that the legislation could be used as a shield “to further censorship.” He ultimately voted for the legislation.The bill creates a “safe harbor” from antitrust laws for a period of eight years for newspapers, broadcast stations and digital journalism outlets.
Similar legislation failed to advance in recent years, but a revised version was introduced last month. The new legislation places limits on the size of news outlets that can collectively negotiate, prohibiting news outlets with more than 1,500 full-time employees. It would require so-called “gatekeeper platforms” — i.e., Google and Facebook — to negotiate in “good faith” with those news organizations. The platforms are defined as those with at least 50 million U.S.
Klobuchar said in a statement after the vote, “Our bipartisan legislation ensures media outlets will be able to 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 of keeping communities informed.”Tech platforms opposed the measure.
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