The United States is not the first to work on such legislation. In Europe and more particularly in France, the related rights directive already allows press publishers to negotiate with web companies to obtain compensation. In France, Facebook signed with the media in October 2021.
READ ALSO: The right of neighborhood for the press adopted in France
If in France the discussions took place without Facebook wielding a threat of this nature, elsewhere it has not always been the case. The most emblematic obstacle is that of Australia. For a few days in early 2022, Australian users could no longer share content from news sites. A dispute resolved in a week after a clarification of the text of the adopted law. Contrary to what Meta feared, it didn’t force them to pay, but to negotiate with the sites.
More recently, Facebook has begun a showdown with the Belgian press. Rather than a pure ban on news content, its visibility has been drastically reduced: more images, less visible links, etc. Overall, Meta is trying to keep media business spending to a minimum to redirect those funds to its Metavers project.
