Meta responds to journalism wage fee proposal

SAN FRANCISCO - Meta is threatening to pull news posts from Facebook and Instagram if a state bill becomes law.

Bill AB 886 would make tech companies pay a journalism usage fee for content from local news outlets and require publishers to devote 70% of the proceeds from the fees to create and maintain journalism jobs in California.

"If the Journalism Preservation Act passes, we will be forced to remove news rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers," Meta said in a statement.

Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks fired back at the company on Twitter, saying in part, "This threat from Meta is a scare tactic that they've tried to deploy unsuccessfully in every country."

The bill is modeled after a law in Australia. Supporters say has been a lifeline for newspaper and television stations.