Ted Cruz Reaches Compromise With Democrats on Controversial Big Tech Bill

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has struck a deal with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to advance her bill, the Journalism Competition and Protection Act (JCPA) out of the Senate committee where it had languished.

Cruz’s compromise has been reported by conservative outlets such as Breitbart as a betrayal by allowing certain newspapers and media outlets to negotiate with content distribution platforms like Google to reportedly engage in price fixing and, according to the bill’s opponents, other anti-competitive practices including changes to laws on online content moderation and copyright protection.

Breitbart‘s Matthew Boyle goes so far as to claim that Cruz has become “one of the biggest enablers of the establishment media and Big Tech giants and he could seriously jeopardize his political future.”

The Hill further reports:

Thursday’s vote to advance the bill followed two weeks of negotiations between Klobuchar and Cruz after the Democrat pulled a vote on her bill at a markup earlier this month.

The bill was pulled after an amendment from Cruz about content moderation was adopted when Democrats were down a member with Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) isolating in India with COVID-19.

…

The bill advanced in a 15-7 vote, with seven Republicans voting against the bipartisan amendment.

Cruz has so far defended his vote. The Texas senator put forth an amendment, which recently passed, stating that negotiations between certain media outlets and online content distributors shall take place “solely to reach an agreement regarding the pricing, terms and conditions,” and, as The Hill adds, “should not address how platforms display, rank or distribute content.”

Clearly, some prominent conservatives aren’t convinced.

Although, at least some liberals would beg to differ.

This story is developing. Stay with American Liberty News for the latest updates.

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