That is the assertion of advocacy group Tech Freedom, putting it squarely at odds against the National Association of Broadcasters and local media who have been pleading Congress to pass the legislation before the end of this Congressional session.
To Tech Freedom, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act — along with the Kids Online Safety Act — contain “key provisions” that in its view violate the First Amendment.
And, Tech Freedom asserts, these provisions will make the internet less safe for children and adults.
“As currently written, JCPA will help the very opposite of serious journalism, and KOSA will harm minors rather than help them,” Tech Freedom warns.
Berin Szóka, President of TechFreedom, comments, “Poisoning the information ecosystem is no way to protect journalism. Unfortunately, JCPA does exactly that; absent further amendment it will surely be weaponized against content moderation by the worst dumpers of digital toxic waste. Despite some minor improvements, JCPA still allows extremist, pseudo-journalistic publications to demand platforms pay for the privilege of deciding not to carry their content at all. Even worse, JCPA would lead to vexatious ‘retaliation’ lawsuits from noxious contentmongers upset that platforms won’t monetize their content, or simply because their content was moderated.”
He adds that the Senate Judiciary Committee could have addressed First Amendment concerns about both bills “if it hadn’t rushed them through without standard legislative process. The full committee held hearings on neither bill. The Antitrust Subcommittee held one hearing on JCPA but failed to address First Amendment issues. Instead, JCPA’s sponsors rewrote the bill repeatedly to get it through markup—and there was never any opportunity to examine whether those amendments were adequate. KOSA received less than 20 minutes of discussion—all of it at markup. Both bills should go through the normal hearing process in the next Congress.”
In contrast, the NAB and state broadcasters associations have vociferously supported the JCPA.
And, State Broadcasters Associations representing all 50 states and Puerto Rico on November 29 joined together to ask Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell to hold a vote on the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act” before the end of the current Congressional session.
The bill would allow news publishers to jointly negotiate with online platforms regarding the terms and conditions by which their content may be accessed online.
Known formally as S. 673, the JCPA infamously won approval in the Senate Judiciary Committee in late September after two weeks of negotiations between the bill’s co-sponsor, Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, and Texas Republican Ted Cruz.
As the SBA leaders see it, “The JCPA is an urgently needed first step toward countering Big Tech’s market dominance. This critical legislation would help level the playing field so that broadcasters and other local news publishers can jointly negotiate with dominant online platforms and be fairly compensated.”
