Amy Klobuchar, Cruz strike deal to advance journalism antitrust bill

BNews.id - After Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reached an agreement, a bill that would allow the majority of news organizations to collectively bargain with major digital platforms for payment to disseminate their material proceeded out of a Senate committee on Thursday.

By leveling the playing field with internet behemoths like Google and Facebook, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act seeks to assist regional and smaller news organizations in negotiations.

Following two weeks of discussions between Klobuchar and Cruz after the Democrat withdrew a vote on her measure during a markup earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill's advancement on Thursday.

When Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who was isolated in India with COVID-19, Democrats were down a member, and Cruz's amendment about content moderation was accepted. This caused the measure to be dropped.

"Companies like Facebook and Google depend on Republicans and Democrats' inability to set aside their differences and reach an agreement on substantive legislation in the digital industry. Now is the time for us to

Cruz first proposed a change that aimed to remove the antitrust protection if any party in discussions brought up content moderation, capitalizing on claims that digital companies are restricting conservative material.

The proposal, according to Klobuchar, would basically provide tech platforms a "get out of jail free card" by allowing them to raise content moderation at the opening of negotiations in order to avoid striking a settlement.

The phrase that was added to the version that was approved on Thursday states that the discussions must be held "solely to establish an agreement over the price, terms and conditions" and must not touch on the platforms' methods for content distribution or ranking.

Cruz asserted that the amendment guards against censorship using the antitrust liability as a cover.

"Big Tech abhors this legislation. That, in my opinion, is a very strong argument in favor of it, he said.

Tech sector organizations have vehemently opposed the law, claiming it will result in the formation of a media monopoly.

According to Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the law "continues to be an unparalleled government overreach."

"While objective journalism is critical to informing voters, inserting federal regulators into private sector business negotiations, mandating carriage of what the government thinks is 'news,' and promoting cartels is an irresponsible way to encourage a robust and independent news media," he said in a statement.

This year, Klobuchar is attempting to gain a floor vote on a number of bills that target digital firms.

She has been pleading for support on her Open App Markets Act and American Online Innovation and Choice Act, which seek to limit the influence of powerful internet platforms. Bipartisan backing helped both proposals get out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but floor votes have not yet been scheduled.