The bill to make Google, Meta pay for content enters the infamous territory of political assassination
A bill to pay Google and Facebook advertisers for content produced on their platforms faced a do-or-die test Thursday in the federal chamber known as a killing ground for proposed legislation.
Assembly Bill 886 would force tech giants to shell out annual fees, more money to fund media advertising, or be forced into arbitration or arbitration to pay media companies a share of revenue. of digital advertising.
On Thursday, the bill, called the California Journalism Preservation Act and introduced by East Bay State Assembly Member, Buffy Wicks, will be referred to the annual “questionable file” hearing in the state Senate’s appropriations committee. It’s the secretive process that could make AB 886 a bloodbath that weakens the hundreds of bills pending before the annual Aug. 31 of passing.
David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University who has been tracking the bill, said: “A lot of times it’s dubious bills that make people dubious. Even though most of the bills that end up on the docket of doubts die there, the fate of AB 886 is still unknown, McCuan believes, and the status of the bill can be “more with pause and consideration than killing.”
Lawmakers and stakeholders — including tech industry advocates, publishers and digital media startups — are discussing a possible resolution, which could include a modified version of the bill. or a compensation agreement that does not include new legislation.
Big tech firms can offer informal solutions that will give money to media companies, said Robert Singleton, regional director of policy and public affairs for the Chamber of Progress, a lobby group in representing Google, Meta and other technology companies. “I think there will be some kind of agreement for some financial support for the media in the state of California,” Singleton said.
However, the California News Publishers Association said the law is needed to ensure that technology platforms follow any agreements to pay for news releases.
This bill, written by assemblymen Bill Essayli, Republican of Riverside, and Josh Lowenthal, Democrat of Long Beach, passed the state Assembly in June 2023.
Wicks, whose office cited Wednesday’s refusal to comment on the bill, noted in a June hearing that news outlets are “reduced and closed at alarming rates.” As content moved online and major web platforms became ubiquitous, publishers were required by law to allow their content on the platform, with “small returns to once,” said Wicks.
More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the US since 2005, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. California has fired more than 100 news agencies in the past decade, Wicks said.
In a lawsuit in June, Google’s vice president of global media relations, Jaffer Zaidi argued that the bill is based on “false conditions” in which the network takes content for profit without compensation. Google search sends “billions of visits” every day to the websites of media publishers of all sizes, giving them “valuable free traffic,” Zaidi said.
The changes to the bill show progress in bringing the groups together, so legislation or a deal is possible, but short-term, McCuan said. He said that political horse-trading among lawmakers and the Governor’s office could cause the constitution to be sacrificed.
Or AB 886 could be killed by orders from above, McCuan said. Newsom would have to sign the bill to make it law, and while Big Tech is “right up there” with Big Tobacco and Big Oil as the “big bad guys,” who rail against Silicon Valley, mostly in an election year, perhaps. he didn’t appeal to her, McCuan said.
“He doesn’t want to make this call,” McCuan said.
A spokesman for Newsom said Wednesday that he would “evaluate this bill on its merits if it reaches his desk.”
If AB 886 fails to make it past the skepticism hearing, the political will shown to make Google and Meta pay for content in California could spark new attempts to create legislation, McCuan said.
“There may need to be more time to find the right model for the legislation to move forward,” McCuan said.
Researchers from Columbia University and the University of Houston released a paper in November that estimated Google’s revenue related to media search results at $21 billion a year. Meta collects about $4 billion a year from US Facebook feeds, researchers said.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents Google, Meta and other tech giants, is running high-profile ads saying AB 886 will support “national and global news organizations.” Singleton says traditional media have become victims of the media revolution, but new digital media outlets are finding success, including a Pulitzer Prize for Lookout Santa Cruz.
“They’re more flexible and flexible, they’ve been able to adapt,” Singleton said.
A spokesman for the California News Publishers Association – to which the news organization belongs – noted that a federal judge ruled last week that Google has an illegal claim to internet search.
“The biggest percentage of research results is media coverage: It’s usually 40% to 60%,” said Brittney Barsotti. “They provide users with accurate information by crawling and manipulating content, and we don’t get paid.
“The decline in advertising revenue – which has gone directly to the platform – is playing a major role in the battle for the news industry. If lawmakers don’t act now, there won’t be any news outlets left.”
Originally published:
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