US Senate panel postpones vote on bill allowing media to jointly negotiate with big tech

‘Today we held the bill up in the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, partly because a colleague could not be present and we needed his vote for an amendment,’ said the sponsor of the bill, Senator Amy Klobuchar. “I fully intend to go ahead with the bill.”

Proponents of the bill said it was necessary to ensure that news organizations, which have struggled to make a profit in recent years, receive a fair share of advertising revenue from Google and Facebook by allowing them to trade collectively with technology companies.

Unlike other bills aimed at curbing big tech companies, some progressive groups oppose the move, including Public Knowledge, Common Cause and Consumer Reports. The groups attached a letter criticizing the move, among other things because it “advantages major broadcasters such as News Corp, Sinclair, iHeart and Comcast/NBCU over any other form of journalism, and its stated purpose of helping local news undermines”.