New Policy Brief Demystifies JCPA, Explains How It Can Save Local Journalism
Washington, D.C. — Amid renewed federal and state momentum to advance the Journalism Preservation and Competition Act (JCPA), the American Economic Liberties Project today released a new policy brief, “Saving the News from Big Tech: The JCPA” to demystify this crucial legislation and explain how it could address the dire state of American journalism.
“The JCPA presents an opportunity to revive the news industry, safeguard democracy, and restore balance for journalism in the digital advertising landscape,” says Erik Peinert, Research Manager and Editor at the American Economic Liberties Project. “This legislation enables news publishers to negotiate collectively, ensuring Big Tech pays for the journalism they profit from and providing news outlets with a viable pathway to sustain themselves. To oppose the JCPA is to take the side of Big Tech’s profits.”
The JCPA would rebalance the unequal relationship between tech platforms and news organizations by creating a time-limited, 6-year “safe harbor” exemption to our antitrust laws, allowing smaller publishers and news organizations to coordinate together to bargain with tech platforms without running afoul of the law.
Economic Liberties’ brief addresses many among a torrent of Big Tech-boosted talking points that have been leveled at the JCPA. The law provides the necessary rules to allow publishers to negotiate with the platforms over compensation so that journalism can be paid. Despite what Big Tech fearmongering has suggested, the law will not fundamentally alter copyright law, prevent platforms from moderating hateful speech online, or lead to consolidation among publishers.
After the California State Assembly recently moved a version of the JCPA through its legislature, Facebook threatened to cut off services to the entire state, a threat it’s previously hurled at Australia and Canada after those countries’ legislatures passed similar bills.
Read the full policy brief, “Saving the News from Big Tech: The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act,” here.
Learn more about Economic Liberties here.
The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.