California Spurns Meta Threat in Advancing News Fee Bill (1)

The California Assembly on Thursday passed legislation (A.B. 886) that would impose a fee on large social media platforms and search engines for showing news content, over warnings from California-headquartered Meta Platforms Inc. that it would block news on its sites. The vote was 55-6.

The bill, dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act, underwent significant revisions after the author, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D), promised to address concerns over how such a fee would be determined and whether it would actually benefit journalists over corporate owners of news companies.

Tech groups haven’t withdrawn their opposition to the bill, arguing ...