Why Instagram, Facebook May Start Pulling News Content

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Buckle up. It’s about to be another big week in 2024 politics, with three more Republicans expected to announce their run for president.

Former NJ Governor Chris Christie will enter the race on Tuesday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence will announce his run on Wednesday (also his 64th birthday).

And North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum will also launch his bid on Wednesday.

That will bring the total number of Republicans running for President to 12.

What will these three bring to the race and what do they mean for frontrunner, Donald Trump? We have analysis in today’s Mo News podcast.

Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney

🗞 BIG TECH VS. NEWS

Facebook and Instagram users in California may soon be blocked from reading, posting, or sharing any news on their feeds.

Why?! Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, is threatening to pull the plug on all news articles for users if the state passes a law requiring tech platforms to pay news publishers for the content.

THE LAW IN DISPUTE: CALIFORNIA’S JOURNALISM PRESERVATION ACT
NPR explains it this way: it’s a tax on the advertising profits that tech platforms make from distributing news articles. About 70% of the money collected from this law would support newsrooms throughout the state — whose advertising revenues have nosedived.

PAY UP… OR PULL THE PLUG
Big tech is dealing a significant blow to newsrooms nationwide, which depended on advertising revenue for years and have seen their main source of income effectively disappear. News organizations are now fighting for the small percentage of the ad market that is left.

By the numbers:

• Some 40,000 newsroom jobs disappeared between 2008 and 2020.

• More than 360 U.S. newspapers have gone out of business since 2020… that averages out to two per week

• 1/3 of American newspapers that existed 20 years ago will be out of business in the next 2 years

So, many news outlets say if their content helps companies like Meta maintain audience (who isn’t getting their news on social media these days), they should help subsidize the content.

The bill’s author, California Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D), argues it could be a “lifeline” to local news organizations that have been decimated by the internet boom. Wicks said at a hearing last month that more than 100 California news organizations have shut down in the past decade.

META SAYS…
They say their platforms are being unfairly blamed for the collapse of news companies and apps like Facebook help media brands reach new audiences. Meta insists they will no longer distribute news in places where bans are put in place. “It’s pay or remove the news. Our hand is being forced,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told NPR.

WE’VE SEEN THIS FIGHT BEFORE 🌎
Meta’s move to yank all news content isn’t an empty threat.

🇦🇺 After Australia signed a law in 2021 forcing social media platforms to pay news outlets, Facebook blocked news articles across the country. Google threatened to pull its search engine from the country entirely. Traffic to Australian news sites plummeted.

• Facebook and Google eventually gave in and agreed to a deal to pay Australian news publishers. One Columbia Journalism professor did the math. He found it generated nearly $150 million for news organizations— a game changer for media organizations struggling to survive in the digital era.

🇨🇦 Canada is currently getting a taste of Meta’s threat as we write this newsletter. In a blog post last week, the tech giant said it will start cutting off news content on Instagram and Facebook to prevent a similar measure from being enacted up north this month.

NEWS ARMAGEDDON
Governments are increasingly worried about the impact a lack of reliable news will have on the public. The issue: Harvard researchers predict that as more news outlets crumble, it will lead to a severe misinformation problem. The concern: ‘news deserts’ expanding at a time when misinformation is already at an all-time high.

NEXT STEPS
California’s Senate still needs to approve the bill, and Governor Gavin Newsom would then need to sign it. California is the first U.S. state to attempt a similar model, but depending on how it goes, other states could follow.

MEANWHILE…
Media layoffs continue to be a story in 2023, with more cuts on the horizon. In fact, Gannett, the biggest newspaper chain in the country, is about to experience the biggest staff walkout in history. Employees from their 400 or so newspapers are protesting the company’s leadership for hollowing out its newsroom to cut costs.

⏳ SPEED READ

📌 What caused India’s worst train crash in decades that killed nearly 300 (REUTERS)

📌 Biden signs debt ceiling bill that pulls U.S. back from brink of unprecedented default (AP)

📌 Are you in the Middle Class? Use this new calculator to find out (WASHINGTON POST)

📌 Artificial Intelligence eliminated nearly 4,000 US jobs in May (CBS NEWS)

📌 GOP 2024 hopefuls saddle up their hogs and descend on Iowa for Senator Ernst’s annual ‘Roast and Ride’ fundraiser (USA TODAY)

📌 Youtube will stop removing false claims about 2020 election fraud (NBC)

📌 Jill Biden celebrates birthday among the pyramids of Egypt (THE HILL)

📌 New Hampshire man charged for sending voicemail to senator threatening to kill him (NEW YORK TIMES)

📌 Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) will introduce a bill this week requiring disclosure of any A.I. content (AXIOS)

📌 Police arrest suspect in Florida's Hollywood Beach shooting that injured 9 on Memorial Day (NBC MIAMI)

📌 Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, is suspending racing after 12 horses died in one month at their famed racetrack (CBS)

📌 Elizabeth Holmes is seen for the first time in her prison uniform since starting her 11 year sentence (PEOPLE)

📌 North Korean leader's sister is trying — again — to launch spy satellite into orbit (AP)

📌 China warship cuts off U.S. Navy ship, the second provocation in just one week (ABC)

📌 British Vogue's editor-in-chief, the first male and first black editor of British Vogue, is leaving his role amid rumors of a rift with Anna Wintour (DAILY MAIL)

📌 Oops! Sending texts to the wrong person tops the list of modern life mishaps (STUDY FINDS)

📌 The ‘Barbie’ movie used so much pink paint it caused an international shortage (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

🗓 ON THIS DAY: JUNE 5

• 1968: While running for U.S. president, Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed by assassin Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He died the following day.
  

• 1981: In a weekly report, the CDC described a rare lung infection among a group of gay men in Los Angeles. This article, titled “Pneumocystis Pneumonia—Los Angeles,” marked the first official report of what would later be named AIDS.

• 1985: Ferris Bueller took the day off. Some internet sleuths have been trying to figure it out for years…and based on the Cubs footage they used in the movie–it appears it was the June 5th game (though others dispute it, and believe it would have been a September game). We here at Mo News going with June 5th.

• 2001: Alicia Keys releases her debut album 'Songs in A Minor' including the hit, “Fallin.”