John,

I’m reaching out today about a bill that attacks the free and open internet, as well as local and independent journalism. Brace yourself, as detailed in a takedown¹ by our friends at Public Knowledge, this bill is just awful.

The JCPA, or “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act Of 2021,” is a looming disaster for the right to share online. If you think major news outlets are bad now, just wait—the JCPA creates a monopolistic pipeline to put Facebook money into Fox News and CNN's hands and limit who can share news. Contact Congress now to tell them to kill the JCPA!

The JCPA speeds up the decline of journalism, while pretending to do the opposite. Under it, online platforms would likely pay only the biggest news organizations for linking to them or using their content. Big Media is spending a lot of money to lobby for this bill. They know how powerful an exclusive back door into massive profits and inside information from Facebook would be.

This law as-written could also lead to the end of fair use of news content online—it could even make posting a link to a news story a copyright violation. Fair use is what lets John Oliver mock Tucker Carlson using footage from Fox News, what lets civil rights organizations criticize racist news stories, and what lets you make a meme of a news reporter getting attacked by a seagull. This would be a disaster for the Internet.

This bill is another example of legislators wanting to do something good, but, thanks to industry lobbyists, getting it dangerously wrong. Learn more and contact your representatives to urge them to oppose the JCPA!

For a free & open internet,

Lia & the team at ❤️Fight

Footnotes:

1. Public Knowledge: https://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/can-the-journalism-competition-preservation-act-really-preserve-local-journalism-public-knowledge-says-probably-not/

Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.