Techdirt: ‘Senator Klobuchar’s Latest Bad Idea: Letting Smaller Journalism Outlets Demand Payments for Links’

Mike Masnick, Techdirt:

The main function of the bill is to allow news orgs to team up, force internet companies that link to them into mandatory arbitration, and force them to pay the journalism organizations for linking to them. For linking to them. Literally for sending them traffic. The bill says that each side submits their proposal for how much the internet companies should pay the news companies, and then the arbitrator picks one side’s proposal.

But, again, let’s go back to what this is — what the internet companies are being forced to pay for. They are being forced to pay to send other websites traffic. This is ludicrous.

Has Amy Klobuchar’s name ever been on a piece of tech or internet-related legislation that was anything but a terrible idea? Masnick righteously skewers this one, concluding:

I can’t see how anyone thinks this is a good idea. And, again, I run one of the companies that in theory would “benefit” from this nonsense by getting free money.

I used to just think that Senator Klobuchar was ignorant about how the internet worked. But considering how frequently she releases absolutely ridiculous and dangerous bills about the internet, I’m beginning to realize that she is deliberately seeking to destroy it.

★ Wednesday, 31 August 2022