Facebook (now called Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned that his platform, which is the biggest social media platform on the planet, could be forced to eliminate all news content if Congress adopts the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) which is a bill that creates an alliance of media conglomerates with the capability of imposing Big Tech to transfer wealth to them.
In a statement, Zuckerberg blasted recent attempts to link the JCPA with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Zuckerberg said forcing the tech industry to give money to media conglomerates will create a “terrible precedent.”
The post, which was recently posted through social media platforms by Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone, is copied in entirety below:
“If Congress approves an unconsidered journalism bill as part law governing national security, we could be forced into eliminating news off our platform completely instead of submitting to government-imposed negotiations that ignore any benefits we can provide to media outlets by increasing circulation and subscriber counts. This Journalism Competition and Preservation Act does not recognize the most important reality that broadcasters and publishers publish their content on our platform since it is beneficial to their bottom line, not the reverse. It is not fair for any company to be required to cover content that viewers don't want and it's not a good income source. Simply put, the idea of inventing a cartel-like structure that obliges one private business to pay for the subsidy of other private businesses is a bad model for the rest of American companies.”
Zuckerberg's complaint is aimed at an aspect of the JCPA that could make it mandatory to transfer wealth from one group of powerful and wealthy corporations located in Silicon Valley to another – that of the media sector.
There are a myriad of issues with the JCPA that Zuckerberg doesn't discuss, such as its potential to facilitate further collusion media censorship between Big Tech and the media as well as the potential for big conglomerates with multiple media outlets to be the dominant force in any cartel that is created pursuant to the law.
Most shockingly, given plans by lawmakers to attach it to an “must-pass” defense bill, the JCPA will also benefit American foreign adversaries by bolstering media companies which Chinese press outlets are paying more and more for influence over the American public.
