Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Bill To Allow News Outlets To Collectively Negotiate With Big Tech
deadline.comThe Senate Judiciary Committee cleared legislation that would give news outlets a reprieve from antitrust laws and allow them to band together to negotiate agreements with tech platforms.The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act passed in a 15-7 vote, drawing bipartisan support.“We actually share the view that this is not about content.
This is about negotiating prices,” said one of the bill’s key co-sponsors, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).She said the goal of the bill is to “allow local news organizations to get compensation when major titans, monopolies, like Facebook and Google, access their content.
It wasn’t about facilitating negotiations about content.”She proposed an amendment that clarifies that the bill’s focus is solely on compensation for news outlets, not over content.
That alleviated concerns of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that the legislation could be used as a shield “to further censorship.” He ultimately voted for the legislation.The bill creates a “safe harbor” from antitrust laws for a period of eight years for newspapers, broadcast stations and digital journalism outlets.Similar legislation failed to advance in recent years, but a revised version was introduced last month.
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