Congressional lawmakers are reportedly drafting a bill that would allow news outlets to cooperate against Facebook and Google.
The House Judiciary Committee plans to roll out legislation in the coming weeks to allow small American news organizations to negotiate collectively with the two tech titans, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), The panel’s top Republican, told Reuters.
The reported bill would add to the increasing regulatory burden on Facebook and Google, which are accused of getting into trouble for news outlets by using their content without due compensation.
The fight reached a feverish height in Australia this week when Facebook blocked users there from sharing news content in response to a bill that would allow publishers to negotiate payments from tech giants for the use of their content displayed in search results or news feeds. .
Buck told Reuters that upcoming US legislation would be similar to a 2019 bill that would have allowed small publishers to negotiate alongside Facebook and Google without violating antitrust laws.
That move was reportedly co-sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), chair of the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel.
“The biggest threat to the free market economy is big tech, and that (potential legislation) needs to be fairly tightly focused on,” Buck told Reuters.
Google has already struck deals to pay media groups around the world for their content, including News Corp., owner of The Post and the Wall Street Journal.
A Buck spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment on Friday.
News of the bill came after another House panel announced plans to bring in three Big Tech CEOs for another round of congressional testimony.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google chief Sundar Pichai and Twitter chief Jack Dorsey will appear before the Energy and Commerce Committee on March 25 to discuss “disinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms,” lawmakers announced Thursday.
All three men were grilled by the Senate Trade Committee in October. Dorsey and Zuckerberg returned in November for a Senate Committee hearing.