Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is threatening to pull news feeds on its platforms for California residents if the state legislature passes the Journalism Preservation Act.
In a statement posted on Twitter on May 31, Meta expressed its opposition to the proposal AB 886, which requires big tech companies to pay news outlets a journalism usage fee, is made into law.
The proposed law is aimed at reversing a decline in California’s local news sector.
The statement was Meta’s first official comment specifically addressing AB 886.
Support for Local News Industry
Democrat State Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, who sponsored the California bill, tweeted that Meta’s threat was “a scare tactic that they’ve tried to deploy, unsuccessfully, in every country that’s attempted this.”…