Congress lawmakers have drafted a bill that would allow news publishers to join Facebook and Google.
The House Judiciary Committee plans to pass legislation in the coming weeks to allow small US news organizations to negotiate collectively with the two technology titans, Ken Buck (R-Colo.) Spokesman told Reuters.
The reported bill would add to the growing regulatory pressure on Facebook and Google, who have been accused of putting the news in a workplace by using their content without adequate compensation.
The battle reached a fever in Australia this week, when Facebook blocked users there from sharing news content in response to a proposed law that would allow publishers to negotiate payments from tech giants for the use of their search results. or in news feeds.
Buck told Reuters that future US law would be similar to a 2019 bill that would allow small publishers to negotiate with Facebook and Google without being affected by antitrust laws.
This measure was allegedly co-sponsored by Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), who chairs the Judicial Committee’s antitrust commission.
“The biggest threat to the free market economy is big technology, and this (potential legislation) should be fairly closely focused on this,” Buck told Reuters.
Google has already negotiated agreements to pay media groups around the world for their content, including News Corp., which owns The Post and the Wall Street Journal.
A Buck spokesman did not immediately respond to an email requesting comments on Friday.
News of the bill came after another House panel announced plans to transport three Big Tech CEOs for another round of congressional testimony.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google chief Sundar Pichai and Twitter chief Jack Dorsey will appear before the Energy and Trade Committee on March 25 to discuss “misinformation and misinformation affecting online platforms,” they announced on Thursday. parliamentarians.
All three men were grilled by the Senate Trade Committee in October. Dorsey and Zuckerberg returned to a Senate Judiciary hearing in November.