Meta has threatened to remove the news from Facebook if a journalism-related bill passes Congress and becomes law.

Congress could take up the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act and attach it to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, which is the annual blueprint for military spending.

Meta statement on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act: pic.twitter.com/kyFqKQw7xs

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) December 5, 2022

“If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act fails to recognize the key fact: publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line – not the other way around. No company should be forced to pay for content users don’t want to see and that’s not a meaningful source of revenue. Put simply: the government creating a cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidize other private entities is a terrible precedent for all American businesses.”