A California bill that would require tech companies to pay media outlets for posting and using news content has been put on hold until 2024.
Assembly Bill 886, also known as the California Journalism Preservation Act, was introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland). The bill would require tech companies, like Facebook and Google, to pay news outlets a “journalism usage fee” when they sell advertising alongside news content.
The bill required that at least 70% of those funds would be used to support journalists in California.
While the bill did pass the Assembly with bipartisan support in early June and moved to the state Senate, Wicks’ office announced Friday that the bill would be rescheduled for 2024, resuming where it was in the legislative process.
“I’ve agreed to make AB 886 a two-year bill In order to ensure the strongest legislation possible – because getting this policy right is more important than getting it quick,” Wicks said in a news release.
“My priority is making sure this bill does exactly, and only, what it intends: to support our free press and the democracy sustained by it, to make sure publications get paid what they are owed, and to hold our nation’s largest and wealthiest tech companies accountable for repurposing content that’s not theirs.”
Senator Tom Umberg will hold an informational hearing in the fall to further explore issues AB 886 is trying to tackle and look at similar legislation in other countries to better craft a solution for California, a news release said.
The bill received strong support from the influential Media Guild of the West, a union representing the Los Angeles Times, the Southern California News Group and other publications in Arizona and Texas.
However, tech companies haven’t been too enthusiastic about the bill.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, threatened to pull all news content from its platforms in California if the bill becomes law.
The company made similar threats to the U.S. Congress in 2022 and the Canadian government this year when those lawmakers attempted similar measures to bolster local journalism, the Associated Press reported.
Canadians will no longer be able to share news content on Facebook and Instagram after lawmakers in Ottowa passed their own law, dubbed the Online News Act, requiring the social media platforms to pay news outlets to share their stories.
The Canadian law is modeled after a 2021 Australian regulation. Meta also threatened to pull news content in Australia but later relented.
The Hill contributed to this report.
