California delays decision on bill to make Big Tech pay for news content

California lawmakers are delaying consideration of a bill to make Big Tech platforms pay for news content, following soon after the state’s representatives in Congress killed related federal legislation.

State Democratic lawmakers announced Friday that Assembly Bill 886, or the California Journalism Preservation Act, will be considered sometime next year.

The legislation proposes requiring companies such as Google and Meta to give a portion of their ad revenue to media publishers. The bill passed the state’s Assembly earlier this year but has stalled in the state Senate.

Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks of Oakland and Sen. Tom Umberg of Santa Ana said Friday they will push for additional consideration on the bill next year.

“My greatest concern is that we enact legislation that is fair, and that the benefits in this bill flow specifically to support local journalists and in turn, all Californians,” Mr. Umberg said in a statement.

Mr. Umberg said he will hold an informational hearing on the legislation in the coming months and will hold a vote in the judiciary committee next year.

Ms. Wicks, the bill’s author, said she agreed to the delay “because getting this policy right is more important than getting it quick.”

“My priority is making sure this bill does exactly, and only, what it intends: to support our free press and the democracy sustained by it, to make sure publications get paid what they are owed, and to hold our nation’s largest and wealthiest tech companies accountable for repurposing content that’s not theirs,” Ms. Wicks said in a statement.

While California Democrats put their bill on hold, the state’s federal representatives have scrapped the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act aiming to give media outlets more negotiating power with Big Tech over advertising and distribution.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, declared the antitrust journalism legislation dead in the House just before it passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.

Sen. Alex Padilla, California Democrat, said at a Judiciary Committee meeting in June that he plans to block the bill’s passage in the Senate.

The outlook for antitrust journalism legislation is bleak in the U.S., but it’s not the end of the world for all Western antitrust legislation.

Canada’s Online News Act has prompted outrage from Big Tech companies, with Google and Meta saying they plan to block news on their platforms when the bill takes effect. The legislation forces the tech behemoths to pay for news used on their services.

Meta made identical threats to block news in Australia in 2021 over similar legislation, but the tech company reached an agreement with the government to end the planned blockade of digital news.

Meta also threatened in May to block news on Facebook and Instagram in California if the state’s journalism bill passed.

Meanwhile, the liberal Chamber of Progress, which counts Google and Meta as partners, said it supports the decision to delay the legislation and looks forward to shaping whatever comes next.

“Funding local news is an important goal, but CJPA would create more problems than it solves,” said Adam Kovacevich, the chamber’s CEO, in a statement. “Ultimately, Californians don’t want to pass legislation that benefits Fox News.”

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.