Meta is ready to drop news in Illinois if forced to pay local publishers
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
A new Illinois bill called the Journalism Preservation Act (SB 3591) that’s currently sitting in the state’s Senate would require online companies to pay local news publishers for work viewed by residents on their platforms.
This follows in the footsteps of national laws in Canada and Australia, as well as in California. Like in those cases, Meta says it will pull news from its platforms in the state if the bill becomes law.
Meta spokesperson Jamie Radice told The Verge via email that news isn’t the reason most people visit Facebook and Instagram, and if the law passes, “we will be forced to make the same business decision that we made in Canada to end the availability of news in Illinois.” We asked Google for comment, but it did not…
