Meta threatens to pull news posts from Facebook, Instagram if California bill becomes law

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has threatened to remove news posts from those social media platforms should Assembly Bill 886, dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act, become law.

The measure, authored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, would require social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to pay a monthly “journalism usage fee” — to be determined through an arbitration process — based on the social media platform’s monthly ad revenue.

The money would go into a fund for payments to the companies that produced the content. Media companies would be required, under the proposed law, to spend at least 70% of that money on journalists and support staff.

Local newspapers have hemorrhaged advertising revenue and staff with the rise of the social media giants. The hollowing of local news outlets has weakened the civic fabric of many communities, proponents of the bill say, creating “news deserts.”

Meta argued that news publishers chose to put their content on social media platforms, and that substantial consolidation in California’s local news industry largely predates the wide use of Facebook. Even now, the company said, news is not a significant portion of most users’ Facebook feeds, making up less than 3% of what people see.

“If the Journalism Preservation Act passes, we will be forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers,” according to a Meta statement shared with The Bee Wednesday morning.

The tech industry has rebelled against the bill, with the center-left, tech-funded Chamber of Progress releasing an analysis that showed that the biggest beneficiaries would be “disinformation giants,” such as Fox News, the New York Post and Newsmax, rather than small journalism outlets and ethnic media.

Wicks rebutted that claim in a recent interview with The Bee.

“The very people that they’re purporting to care about here ... are all at the table either supporting the bill or in conversations with me,” Wicks said at the time.

She responded Wednesday to Meta’s announcement on Twitter, calling it “a scare tactic that they’ve tried to deploy, unsuccessfully, in every country that’s attempted this.”

“It is egregious that one of the wealthiest companies in the world would rather silence journalists than face regulation,” Wicks wrote.

The bill, which is set to be heard on the Assembly floor Thursday, has received unanimous, bipartisan support in both committees where it has been heard.

AB 886 is supported by a range of media outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Blade. It is co-sponsored by the California News Publishers Association, whose members include The Sacramento Bee and parent company McClatchy’s four other news outlets in the state — The Fresno Bee, The Modesto Bee, the San Luis Obispo Tribune and the Merced Sun-Star.