The proposed act, unveiled Monday by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, would require Big Tech platforms like Meta and Google to pay news publishers for their content. It closely reflects laws passed last year in Australia. (The Logic)

Talking point: The so-called Journalism Competition and Preservation Act would require online platforms with 50 million or more American users, plus either a market capitalization of US$550 billion or at least one billion monthly worldwide users, to negotiate payment agreements with news organizations. The media companies, in turn, would receive an eight-year exemption from antitrust laws that would allow them to bargain collectively for the deals. If passed, the bill would raise the stakes for Google and Meta, which have fought hard against similar legislation in other countries, including Canada. But that’s a big if. Even with bipartisan support, two previous such efforts have bogged down. Notably, the U.S. bill does not apply to major national publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. That’s one of a few features that sets it apart from the Trudeau government’s proposed Online News Act.