On Monday, draft language of an amendment that adds the Journalism and Competition Preservation Act (JCPA) to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was circulated. In response, Chamber of Progress joined a broad-ranging coalition of more than two dozen organizations, including the ACLU, Wikimedia, Public Knowledge, and Common Cause, in a letter to congressional leadership urging the removal of the JCPA amendment from the NDAA.

“This provision could force platforms to carry the content of any digital journalism provider, regardless of how extreme their content. The single biggest beneficiary of the JCPA won’t be your local newspaper, or even a national paper – it’ll be Fox News,” said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich. “Everything we know about link sharing on Facebook and search engines suggests that rightwing media will be best positioned to take advantage of this law. Democrats shouldn’t turn online platforms into cash machines for conservative outlets.”

Chamber of Progress’s concerns that the JCPA would support rightwing media were echoed at a Senate hearing this September, where Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) highlighted that “the bill’s prohibitions on the ability of platforms to take viewpoints into consideration and its overbroad retaliation provision, coupled with compelled arbitration and the ambiguous definition of access, invite a world where platforms will have to pay for content and subsidize outlets they fundamentally disagree with.”

Chamber of Progress has collected petitions opposing the JCPA, gathering thousands of signatures against the legislation at StopJCPA.com. 

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Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future. We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly. 

Our corporate partners do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.