Breakingviews

NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Meta Platforms (META.O) is taking a bold stand against a new piece of legislation, yet it’s Elon Musk’s Twitter that looks most exposed. The U.S. Congress is considering adding the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act” to a defense bill that has a high likelihood of passing, according to Reuters. The law allows publishers to collectively negotiate with online platforms on content. The Facebook operator is threatening to pull news off its feed if it is passed, spokesperson Andy Stone tweeted.

Most Americans turn to social media to find out what’s cooking, but they utilize platforms differently. For example, two-thirds of U.S. adults use Facebook, but less than half of them get their news on it, according to the Pew Research Center. Twitter meanwhile reaches about a quarter of the American adult population. The overwhelming majority of the people on that platform regularly read it for news.

It suggests that the news business is offering Twitter quite a lot of traffic, and so organizations that are protected by this agreement – those with no more than 1,500 employees – will have some negotiating power. Musk has many problems. The e-version of the daily rag just became one more. (By Jennifer Saba)

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Editing by Lauren Silva Laughlin and Sharon Lam

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