California Democrats never met a bad idea they didn’t like.
The Democrats’ supermajority in the legislature allows for all sorts of terrible policies.
Now Google and Gavin Newsom went to war over one law.
The Democrat establishment has been desperate to pass a media cartel bill called the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA).
In reality, the law would allow legacy institutions to serve as gatekeepers of the new business.
Cartel bill revived
The JCPA has stalled at the national level, but loony leftists in California are attempting to pass a state version called the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA).
As part of the so-called effort to save local journalism, the CJPA would charge a “link tax” to companies like Google, Facebook, and other platforms where people share news articles.
In response to the bill, Google is limiting access in California.
The company wrote in a statement, “A pending bill in the California state legislature, the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), would create a ‘link tax’ that would require Google to pay for simply connecting Californians to news articles. We have long said that this is the wrong approach to supporting journalism. If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers.”
Not only are California Democrats looking for a way to squeeze out extra bucks, but the CJPA would hamper conservative media companies and other independent news outlets.
The goal of the CJPA
Google continued, “By helping people find news stories, we help publishers of all sizes grow their audiences at no cost to them. CJPA would up-end that model. It would favor media conglomerates and hedge funds—who’ve been lobbying for this bill—and could use funds from CJPA to continue to buy up local California newspapers, strip them of journalists, and create more ghost papers that operate with a skeleton crew to produce only low-cost, and often low-quality, content.”
This is precisely what the owners of legacy institutions seem hellbent on.
They do not want competition from conservative startup companies that challenge the establishment narrative.
Google added, “As we’ve shared when other countries have considered similar proposals, the uncapped financial exposure created by CJPA would be unworkable. If enacted, CJPA in its current form would create a level of business uncertainty that no company could accept. To prepare for possible CJPA implications, we are beginning a short-term test for a small percentage of California users. The testing process involves removing links to California news websites, potentially covered by CJPA, to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience. Until there’s clarity on California’s regulatory environment, we’re also pausing further investments in the California news ecosystem. . .”
Democrats are desperate for control, and they do not care who gets hurt in the process.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
