TYB
Meta threatens to remove all news from Facebook if bill passes Congress
December 5, 2022
Facebook’s parent company Meta warned Monday that the social media giant could remove news from its platform if Congress signs off on a proposal that would make it easier for news organizations to bargain collectively with tech giants.
In a bid to rescue the lagging local news industry, lawmakers are considering adding the proposed Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to a must-pass annual defense bill that could help smaller news outlets fight for a larger share of revenue from companies like Google and Meta for their news content, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.
But a Meta spokesperson threatened that the legislative move could lead to prohibition of news being shared on the social media site “rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions.”
Spokesperson Andy Stone also argued in a statement posted on Twitter the bill fails to understand the key fact of the proposal that “publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line – not the other way around.”
Meta statement on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act: pic.twitter.com/kyFqKQw7xs
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) December 5, 2022
He additionally said the proposed bill would set a “terrible precedent for all American businesses” because it would create a “cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidize other private entities.”
A trade group that reps newspaper publishers, the News Media Alliance, is lobbying Congress to add the bill to the defense spending plan. The group insisted “local papers cannot afford to endure several more years of Big Tech’s use and abuse, and time to take action is dwindling.
“If Congress does not act soon, we risk allowing social media to become America’s de facto local newspaper,” the group said.
US Sen. Amy Klobuchar is a major backer of the bill.
“We’ve seen a startling erosion of local papers in the country,” she said in a recent interview with the Seattle Times.
“Google and Facebook are worth over $1 trillion combined … Literally the revenue has changed hands. Yes, everyone’s online, but the content providers, the reporters, should be compensated for the work that they do and it shouldn’t be given away to these mega companies that are dominant platforms.”
But more than two dozen groups, including the ACLU, advised Congress not to approve the measure because they believe it would “create an ill-advised antitrust exemption for publishers and broadcasters” and warned the revenue from negotiation or arbitration does not require that it goes toward journalists.
Sauce: https://nypost.com/2022/12/05/meta-threatens-to-remove-news-from-facebook-if-congress-oks-bill/
Never mind the BABY present and the heavy emphasis on Sweet Baby Ray's
nothing to see there
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday it was “not healthy” for Twitter owner Elon Musk to publish internal company files revealing Twitter’s censorship of The Post’s 2020 reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
December 5, 2022
“What is happening — it’s frankly, it’s not healthy. It won’t do anything to help a single American improve their lives. And so look, we see this as an interesting, you know, coincidence, and you know, it’s a distraction,” Jean-Pierre concluded during her Monday briefing, offering a lengthy denunciation of Musk’s Friday reveal of how Twitter execs decided to suppress The Post’s damning expose.
“We see this as an interesting, or a coincidence, if I may, that he would so haphazardly — Twitter would so haphazardly push this distraction that is full of old news, if you think about it,” Jean-Pierre said, brushing off the politically motivated denial of free speech protections raised by Musk’s document dump.
“And at the same time, Twitter is facing very real and very serious questions about the rising volume of anger, hate and anti-Semitism on their platform and how they’re letting it happen.”
The voice of the Biden administration did not note that the Musk-led Twitter booted rapper Kanye West last week for tweeting a swastika after making a series of antisemitic remarks — or that as of Monday, the nation’s most famous Jew-basher’s 18.4-million-follower account on Facebook-owned Instagram remains active.
Jean-Pierre’s denunciation of Musk’s moves toward transparency came in response to questions from Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
“On Twitter, because you guys said you’re keeping a close eye on Elon Musk’s ownership and this is the first time we’ve talked to you since he released the files a few days ago — is it the White House view that decisions at Twitter were made appropriately in terms of decisions to censor this reporting ahead of the election?” Heinrich asked.
Jean-Pierre scolded Heinrich, “You mischaracterize actually what I actually said and took it out of context when you asked your question.”
“Look, when I answered the question and I already actually already addressed this about how the White House and the administration is seeing what’s happening on Twitter,” Jean-Pierre fumed.
“We follow also what’s going on, just like you guys are reporting it, just like you guys are seeing. And what I was commenting to is like yes, we’re we’re seeing what is happening, just like you all are seeing what’s happening with Twitter. So just want to clear that up because you definitely mischaracterized what I said or put it out of context. And so can you ask your question again?”
Heinrich proceeded, “My question was that you had said I think six or so days ago to the White House was watching closely the situation at Twitter after Elon Musk’s ownership of it with respect to misinformation. And because these files were released on the basis of ‘hacked materials’ clause at Twitter where decisions were made to censor reporting leading up to the election. My question was, is it the White House view that these decisions were made appropriately in light of what has come out?”
“Which decisions? By whom?” Jean-Pierre asked before giving her Musk-bashing remarks.
“By Twitter,” Heinrich reminded the press secretary.
Sauce/more: https://nypost.com/2022/12/05/jean-pierre-says-not-healthy-for-elon-musk-to-release-files-on-censorship-of-hunter-biden-laptop-story/
Not healthy…. heads up!