California Considers Journalism Usage Fee Bill, Meta Threatens to Block News
California lawmakers are considering a bill known as the Journalism Preservation Act (Assembly Bill 886) that would require large tech companies like Meta and Google to pay digital news providers for content shared on their platforms. The bill aims to support struggling news organizations that have seen steep declines in advertising revenue over the past decade.
However, Meta has stated it will block news on Facebook and Instagram in California if the bill becomes law, arguing that the proposal primarily benefits large out-of-state media companies rather than local publishers. Meta claims the bill fails to recognize that publishers voluntarily post content on its platforms and that journalism’s struggles began before Facebook was widely used.
