News content on Facebook in the US could be removed by Meta.
It doesn't like a new law that gives news organizations more power to negotiate fees.
News on Facebook being briefly suspended in Australia was a result of a similar law.
Meta claims their platform increases traffic to struggling news outlets.
Publishers put their content on Facebook to benefit their bottom line, according to it.
There is bipartisan support for the legislation, known as the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act.
Publishers and broadcasters would have more power to negotiate with social media companies for a bigger share of ad revenue.
Media companies say that Meta makes a lot of money from news articles.
During the Pandemic, local news in particular struggled.
Meta believes that this narrative is incorrect. It claims that Meta drives traffic to news sources.
"If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether".
Meta argues that sharing news on Facebook is only a small portion of its income.
There was a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in Australia due to a law that took effect in March.
The decision to broker a deal with the Australian government was immediately reversed.
A statement was made about Australia's proposed law last year. Less than 4% of the content in the News Feed is news.
Legislation in the US is part of a larger set of laws.
If the act doesn't pass, social media will become America's defacto local newspapers.
The director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project said that media outlets were being eaten alive by Meta.
He said that Meta's attempts to blackmail Congress proves that the monopoly is a threat to democracies around the world.
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