Legislators in Congress are reportedly drafting a bill that would allow news publishers to work against Facebook and Google.
The House Judiciary Committee plans to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to enable small American news organizations to negotiate jointly with the two tech titans, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), The top Republican on the panel, told Reuters.
The bill being reported would contribute to the increasing regulatory pressure on Facebook and Google, which are accused of putting news agents in a stranglehold by using their content without proper compensation.
The battle reached a fever in Australia this week as Facebook barred users from sharing news content in response to a proposed law allowing publishers to negotiate payments from tech giants for the use of their content appearing in search results or news feeds.
Buck told Reuters the upcoming U.S. legislation would be similar to a 2019 bill that would allow small publishers to negotiate with Facebook and Google without missing antitrust laws.
The measure was allegedly co-sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), who chairs the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel.
“The biggest threat to the free market economy is big technology, and that (potential legislation) needs to be focused on fairly strictly,” Buck told Reuters.
Google has already negotiated media groups around the world for their content, including News Corp, which owns The Post and the Wall Street Journal.
A Buck spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The news about the bill came after another House panel planned to gather three Big Tech executives for another round of congressional testimony.
Lawmakers announced Thursday that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Google chief, and Jack Dorsey, Twitter boss, will appear before the energy and trade committee.
All three men were roasted by the Senate committee in October. Dorsey and Zuckerberg returned in November for a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee.