A bill intended to help local and conservative news outlets negotiate better rates from Big Tech platforms advanced in the Senate Thursday, building off the momentum from similar legislation in Canada and California.
The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act gained approval in a bipartisan 14-7 vote Thursday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It now moves to the Senate floor.
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The bill would allow smaller news outlets with 1,500 or fewer employees to join together in negotiations with Google or Meta for better compensation for the stories shared on their platforms without breaching antitrust law.
“The [act] allows for news organizations to combine negotiating power and at least have some leverage over two of the biggest companies the world has come to know,” bill co-sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said at the hearing.
The bill’s future in the Senate, where it stalled last term, is unclear. It does not have a path to passage in the House — Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in a June 10 interview that JCPA will be “dead in the House.”
Advocates say the bill will offer the tools to ensure that small papers are on a level playing ground when negotiating with Big Tech. “The JCPA will give small and local publishers a seat at the table and channel critical revenue to them to help sustain the high-quality journalism Americans need and depend on,” News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey said in a statement.
Critics of the bill claim that it would give most of the negotiation power to companies such as Gannett or Sinclair, which control a significant portion of local news stations. Other critics, including the industry group Chamber of Progress, have argued that the bill would give conservative news outlets a disproportionate share of the revenue.
Meta has threatened to stop sharing news stories on Facebook and Instagram if the act passes.
California’s State Assembly also passed its own version of the bill over the objections of Meta. That bill still requires Senate approval and the governor’s signature.
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Canada is also expected to pass its own version of the bill. In response to the legislation in Canada, Meta has gone so far as to block news for select users to show its willingness to follow through on its threats.
Still, the company has backed away from similar threats in the past. The company banned sharing and viewing news stories in Australia after the country passed a law requiring the Big Tech giant to pay news outlets for content. The ban was reversed within days, after international pressure.
