Meta threatens to pull news posts from Facebook, Instagram if California bill becomes law

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has threatened to remove news posts from those social media platforms should Assembly Bill 886, dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act, become law. The measure, authored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, would require social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to pay a monthly “journalism usage fee” — to be determined through an arbitration process — based on the social media platform’s monthly ad revenue.

The money would go into a fund for payments to the companies that produced the content. Media companies would be required, under the proposed law, to spend at least 70% of that money on journalists and support staff.