The Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 22 advanced a controversial bill that would allow media outlets to form cartels to negotiate with Big Tech platforms.
The bill, dubbed the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), has as many opponents as it has supporters among media outlets and media advocacy groups.
Specifically, the complicated bill would supersede some existing antitrust laws and allow media companies to band together to negotiate with Big Tech platforms, such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
The JCPA states: “A news content creator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for engaging in negotiations with any other news content creator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding the terms on which the news content of the news content creator may be distributed by the online content distributor.”…