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Meta Threatens To Pull News In California Over Payments Bill

By  |  May 31, 2023

On Wednesday, Meta, the owner of Facebook, announced that it would eliminate news content from its headquarters in California if the state government passed a bill requiring tech firms to compensate publishers for journalistic content.

Reuters reported that the California Journalism Preservation Act proposes that online platform companies pay a fee for the use of news content to help combat the decline in the news industry.

Read more: Meta’s Zuckerberg Must Face Questioning In Data Antitrust Suit

Meta spokesman Andy Stone referred to the payment structure as a “slush fund” in a statement made on Twitter. He stated that the bill would primarily benefit “big, out-of-state media companies” while appearing to aid California publishers.

Meta made its initial statement regarding the California bill, though it has been engaged in comparable disputes concerning remuneration for news providers on a national and international level.